Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio

Employing 3-D graphics technology developed at Intel, developers can import 3-D graphics with textures and animated elements (from 3D Studio MAX, for instance), and apply creative new ways to animate objects and text--from spinning icons to Superman-style logo fly-thrus--on three axes. A Particles System debuts a range of special effects: smoke, water, fire, explosions, you name it. With customizable lighting and camera effects, this package delivers the goods on the 3-D development front. Naturally, the 3-D presentations are fully scalable, ensuring that viewers with systems ranging from chug-a-lugs to the latest gigahertz blazers can enjoy the show.

For e-commerce, online game, and animated entertainment developers, the upgrades are more than worth the bucks--especially given the wonderful collection of new production capabilities. Director 8.5 offers support for XML data, allowing for even more dynamic Web pages, and the new Shockwave Multicast 3 tool dishes up server-side scripting and UDP support. This strong community-building tool now supports twice as many simultaneous users--up to 2,000 at once.

A true gem of a new feature is the seamless support for RealVideo and RealAudio directly within Shockwave content.

Director 8.5 is topped off with an improved publish feature that smoothly builds presentations for the Web, CD-ROM, or even DVD. For having such powerful new capabilities, Director's interface remains surprisingly intuitive. Though many of the advanced effects may thwart impatient newbies, earnest novices won't have too much trouble creating professional-looking presentations. And once the pros get warmed up with this necessary upgrade, expect to see some brilliant new Web-based 3-D games and animated movies hitting a browser near you. --Eric Twelker