Caligari Acquisition Adds 3D

Three-dimensional (3D) modeling and animation software developer Caligari will become part of the Microsoft Virtual Earth team after its acquisition, announced in Feb. 2008. Although Microsoft has not announced future plans, Caligari products could enhance the 3D capabilities of Virtual Earth, matching a 3D Google tool called SketchUp, and making Virtual Earth more attractive to businesses that want to advertise with maps and objects in the 3D virtual world. Although Caligari will be joining the Virtual Earth team, the technology may have wider implications for other Microsoft products, such as Web authoring tools, developer tools, and games.

Caligari Brings a Suite of 3D Tools

Founded in 1986, Caligari has developed a set of tools that will be attractive to Microsoft as it develops 3D capabilities for Virtual Earth and other products. The current Caligari offerings are as follows:

TrueSpace is Caligari’s flagship software product for integrated 3D modeling and animation that is used for product design, video production, 3D presentations, games, and art. It can also be used to produce animations, accurately rendering objects’ physical properties, movement, lighting, reflections, and shadows. The latest version of trueSpace adds real-time, collaborative 3D authoring so that users can work together on models in the same 3D space, typically provided by Caligari’s online truePlace environment. List price for trueSpace is US$595.