mFactory Announces mTropolis Update

mTropolis v1.1 Offers Significant New Features and 200% Faster Performance

Burlingame, Calif. -- April 22, 1996 -- mFactory, Inc., a leading provider
of multimedia software tools, announced today an update to their
award-winning mTropolis software. mTropolis is the first high-performance,
object-oriented authoring system for building highly interactive
multimedia titles and applications for use on Macintosh and Windows-based
personal computers, as well as the Internet.

mTropolis version 1.1 offers several new features designed to save
significant development time and provide mTropolis authors with more
information and control. Also included with the v1.1 upgrade is full
support for Apple's QuickTime VR, adding even more realism to the
multimedia experience. In addition, beta testers of v1.1 are seeing faster
performance speeds of up to 200% when running large, complex applications.
mTropolis v1.1 is expected to ship in early May, 1996, and will be
available as a free product upgrade to all new and existing purchasers of
mTropolis v1.0.

"mTropolis 1.1 demonstrates our commitment to delivering the best tools for
rapid title development and performance that lead to the highest degree of
interactivity and realism," said Hamish Forsythe, co-founder and president
of mFactory, Inc. "We've worked very closely with our initial customers of
1.0 to produce this follow-up release. You can expect mFactory to quickly
respond with new capabilities and products to help our customers address
the challenges of innovative multimedia creation."

"We're very pleased with how quickly mFactory has responded to our needs in
the delivery of mTropolis v1.1," said Rachel Rubin, technical director for
Activision. "Our title, Muppets Treasure Island, is a very sophisticated
game that demands tremendous performance capabilities which 1.1
delivers."

NEW MTROPOLIS V1.1 FEATURES

Apple QuickTime VR Support

mTropolis v1.1 now offers complete support of Apple's QuickTime VR (QTVR)
technology! mTropolis v1.1 deals with finished QTVR movies as assets, just
like a QuickTime movie or PICT file. mTropolis v1.1:

* Links QTVR movies to elements
* Plays back both panoramic and object movies direct to screen, with
  standard QTVR panning and navigation behavior
* Allows the access and modification of all relevant QTVR attributes,
  including pan, tilt, zoom and current node
* Uses Panorama Messenger to send messages based on mouse events
  on QTVR hotspots and on QTVR-specific environment events, such
  as node changed, pan started/ended, zoom started/ended
* Uses the Panorama Navigation Modifier to navigate to specific nodes
  and views, such as pan, tilt and zoom) within a panorama. QTVR
  movies can be navigated to immediately or by smoothly panning.

Clips QTVR movies to arbitrary shapes

Run-Time Object Cloning/Killing Two new attributes -- "clone" and "kill" --
allows for run-time duplication and destruction of objects.

Enhanced Synchronization Capabilities

* Media Cue Messenger - The new, experimental Media Cue Messenger
  allows messages to be attached to specific points in a time-based
  media clip (sound, animation or video). Cues may be specified
  by time, by range (for mToons and QuickTime) , or by AIFF marker
  (for sounds).
* Path Motion Messaging - A new Path Motion Modifier provides
  the ability to attach a message to each point along the animation
  path.

Performance Refinements

* Immediate Display Updates - By default, screen updates now occur
  immediately rather than being collected and updating all at
  once. In most cases, this results in faster redraws, but the
  old behavior is still provided for special cases.
* mToon Synchronization - mToons now have an option to synchronize
  playback. If selected, the amount of processor time given to
  the mToon is directly proportional to how far behind the mToon's
  playback is -- so the animation will speed up if necessary
  to hit the correct average frame rate.
* Built-in mToon Compression - Built-in compression is provided
  for 8-bit mToons on all platforms, independent of QuickTime.

And Much More!

Several new attributes, accessible through Miniscript, have been added to
provide more information and control to mTropolis authors. Some attribute
examples are: accessing the offset to an mToon's registration point,
getting and setting the current scene and accessing the number of mouse
clicks.

HOW TO GET MTROPOLIS V1.1

The full version of mTropolis v1.1 may be ordered by calling 1-888-622-8669
or visiting mFactory's web site order page at
http://www.mfactory.com/mtropolis/mTrop_orderform.html. The full version
of mTropolis v1.1 retails for $4,995 and includes all runtime and
licensing fees. The mTropolis v1.1 update is free to all registered
customers of mTropolis v1.0, and will automatically be sent to them as
soon as it is available.

ABOUT MFACTORY

mFactory is a provider of professional multimedia authoring tools for the
development of high-performance, sophisticated new media titles that can
be deployed across multiple client and Internet platforms. To meet the
evolving needs of developers and the growing demand for multimedia on the
World Wide Web, mFactory is applying state-of-the-art object-oriented
technology to enable a new class of sophisticated and highly-interactive
titles that can take advantage of distributed, networked environments.
Founded in 1992, mFactory is a privately held company located in
Burlingame, California.

For more information please contact:

 Rick Jackson
 mFactory, Inc.
 415-548-0600
 rickj@mfactory.com

or

 Jill Ryan
 McLean PR
 415-513-8800
 jill_ryan@mcleanpr.com
 
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