Media Applications

Once I became convinced that NT is fast, stable, and has the API to make it aserious multimedia contender, I asked myself if my favorite media developmentand authoring applications were available for NT. And if so, how well they work.

Let's take a look at the various applications that make up the multimediadevelopment environment: As you can see in Figure A, the key applications aretext generation, graphics editing, animation, video editing, and audio editing.

You shouldn't have any problems with text--NT uses the same fonts you canfind in Windows 3.x. You could, however, have trouble with the other major mediaelements: graphics (illustrations and photographs), animation (2D and 3D),video, and audio. Creating and editing these media elements areprocessor-intensive tasks and require specialized applications designed for eachmedia type.

The two applications that I use the most for graphics are Adobe Photoshopand Fractal Design Painter. Photoshop is an image-editing andgraphics-development tool that has become a staple in the multimedia developmentcommunity. Photoshop, which has been a 32-bit application since 1994, runs wellunder Intel-based NT and takes advantage of SMP. Furthermore, by the time youread this, a fully Windows 95-compliant version of Photoshop will be shipping:It will support both TWAIN16 and the new TWAIN32 scanning standards. (See "Photoshop3.0.5 for Windows NT" on page 81.) Fractal Design Painter has greatartistic and lighting effects as well as cell-based animation capabilities.Painter was actually developed under NT--the latest version is fully Windows95-complaint and runs well under NT, although only on Intel platforms.

Most multimedia authoring systems handle simple 2D animation by themselves.If you want to display 3D animation, you must use a 3D modeling, animation, andrendering package to create an animation or video file. Then, your authoringsystem can import or link to that animation or video file. Autodesk Animator Prohas historically been one of the most used animation packages, and Autodesk hasjust released 3D Studio MAX for the NT market.

Autodesk designed MAX to take advantage of NT-specific features, such asSMP and OpenGL. Because of this design, MAX is one of the first 3D applicationsavailable for Windows NT that performs similar to traditional UNIXworkstation-based 3D tools, such as Alias and Wavefront. MAX is available forboth the Intel and Alpha platforms.

Elastic Reality, now owned by Avid Technology, isn't really a graphics,animation, or video development tool, but it's widely used to create greatspecial effects and morphing sequences. Besides being one of the most funmultimedia tools, Elastic Reality has the best cross-platform support forWindows NT: You can find a native version for all NT platforms. (See "ElasticReality" on page 72.)

The primary tool I use for mid-level desktop video editing is Adobe'sPremiere. This application is popular on the Macintosh, but you can buy only a16-bit version for Windows. Expect to see a 32-bit release by the second quarterof this year. A full Windows 95-compliant version will ship later. Premiere willrun only on Intel platforms.

You should also consider Avid Technology's Real Impact. Real Impact, amid-level video editing package, is available only for Windows NT, and then onlyon the Intel platform. It is rumored, however, that this product will eventuallyreplace Avid's high-end Media Suite Pro package, which is currently a combinedhardware/software video solution. (See "Avid Real Impact" on page 66.)The three primary authoring systems I use are Macromedia Director, MacromediaAuthorware, and Asymetrix Multimedia Toolbook. Director is aimed at high-endpresentations and kiosks. It features powerful animation capabilities and a fullscripting language (Lingo). It's also the development tool developers use tocreate Shockwave animations for Web pages.

Authorware is an icon/flowchart-based authoring system used primarily forcomputer-based training applications. Currently, both Director and Authorwareare 16-bit applications and run under NT. Macromedia has plans to releaseWindows 95-compliant versions that run on Intel-based NT systems early thisyear. In the meantime, both seem to be more stable under NT than under Windows3.x.

For data-intensive multimedia applications, I rely on Multimedia Toolbook.It has a full scripting language (OpenScript) and uses a page metaphor forauthoring: This allows developers to place media and interactive objects onvarious pages. Version 4.0 is Windows 95-compliant and runs on both Intel andPowerPC platforms.

Another authoring system, IconAuthor from AimTech, deserves note becausecompanies that create computer-based training applications often use it. You canfind IconAuthor on the Intel, PowerPC, and Alpha Windows NT platforms, as wellas on UNIX. By the time this article is released, IconAuthor should be a Windows95- and NT-certified application.

When checking to see if your favorite multimedia software works well underNT, you can follow a couple of "rules of thumb": First, be aware thateven though an application is not certified for NT, it still might run justfine. In fact, even non-Intel machines have emulators for Win16 applications.Second, NT is strict about how you access your hardware, and an application willprobably crash if it attempts direct hardware-access. This also applies toapplications that use DOS or Win16 device drivers because NT does not supportthese drivers. Third, keep in mind that just because an application claims to beWindows 95-compliant, that doesn't mean it will take advantage of everything NThas to offer.