At the Game Developer Conference, Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced a new version of Adobe Director software offering game developers, multimedia authors, and e-learning professionals a host of new features for creating immersive gaming and multimedia applications. With support for a new audio engine, high-definition (HD) video and advanced 3-D features, Adobe Director 11.5 provides a rich and flexible platform to create applications for both online and desktop worlds.

The new features in Director 11.5 include a new audio engine that allows developers to deliver 5.1 channel surround sound and create audio effects using real-time mixing capabilities. With support for the H.264 format and RTMP-based streaming, users are able to deliver HD video content. Developers can also create and import 3-D assets through Google SketchUp and SketchUp 3-D Importer. In addition, advanced physics capabilities based on the NVIDIA® PhysX™ engine help users create games and simulations that model real-world gravity and other life-like effects.

“Director 11.5 is a significant milestone in our mission to deliver an advanced set of audio and video features for game developers and multimedia application authors,” said Naresh Gupta, senior vice president, Print and Publishing at Adobe. “With the brand new audio engine in Director 11.5 along with high quality video, developers can now create 3-D online gaming experiences that are simply unparalleled in this space.”

“Adobe Director is a powerful platform for creating compelling and exciting 3-D Shockwave games, which play a significant role in establishing our leadership position in the rapidly growing 3-D online casual gaming space,” said Rob Small, CEO of Miniclip, the largest online games Web site and largest distributor of the Adobe Shockwave plug-in. “With all our 3-D games being developed with Adobe Director, the new version enables us to deliver the kind of rich gaming experience that online gamers worldwide are demanding today.”

In addition to the new features, Director 11.5 also supports Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and continues to support both JavaScript and Lingo — the native scripting language of Director — while providing additional functionality through enhanced scripting performance, an easy-to-use user interface, and a wide variety of third-party add-ons that create an extensible multimedia authoring environment.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Director 11.5 is expected to be available by the end of March 2009 and is priced at £795 ex vat for the full product and £235 ex vat for an upgrade from the prior versions of Director. Educators can purchase Director 11.5 for £235 ex vat. The product runs on multiple operating systems, including Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Windows Vista and Mac OS X version 10.5 on Intel®-based Macintosh systems. The Adobe Shockwave player runs on all of those systems as well as Mac OS X 10.4 on PowerPC-based Macintosh systems. For more information please visit www.adobe.com/products/director.