Adobe Upgrades Multimedia Authoring Tool
Used alone or in combination with Adobe's Shockwave software, Director 11 users can author a project once and publish content for the Web, CDs and DVDs and the desktop simultaneously. Users can also integrate Flash files to Director projects as well as a variety of third-party applications, which provides for a more extensible authoring environment. Director 11 also enables content creators to localize applications through Unicode and create lifelike motion in games and simulations with the Ageia PhysX physics engine. The new version also offers enhanced text and native 3D rendering.
"With the new Director 11, users can unleash their creative capabilities and broaden their market reach with less effort, producing more engaging multimedia applications in less time," Adobe's senior vice president of print and publishing Naresh Gupta said in a release. "This milestone release provides a strong and flexible authoring environment that perfectly complements Adobe's broad suite of authoring products, extending our customers' creative reach to interactive 3D animations and games."
Other new features include support for Adobe Flash 9 technology and bitmap filters to streamline the process for adding characteristics like shadowing or glow to text and images. Director 11 also offers language support with both JavaScript and Lingo (the native scripting language of Director) for programming in multiple languages with complete translation. The latest version also adds a more powerful script browser that breaks out programming code and code snippets with drag and drop capability, which Adobe says will reduce programming time.
Director 11, priced at $999 for the full version, $299 for the upgrade and a $99 version for students, will be available by the end of March 2008, with international versions in French, German and Japanese expected to ship by June 2008.