Mystic Game Development

For Immediate Release

New animator focussed realtime character animation SDK goes beta

Rotterdam, The Netherlands – June 30, 2010 - MysticGD today introduced the first beta version of their new product named EMotion FX Extended, which is a full character animation and general model export solution.

The biggest new feature of EMotion FX Extended compared to standard EMotion FX is the addition of a parameter driven hierarchical blend tree and state machine editor with support for live testing using the game controller. MysticGD welcomes interested companies and animators to test this beta version and provide the product team with their feedback.

"We are glad to finally announce the beta of EMotion FX Extended. We have put a lot of work into this new product and believe it offers an intuitive, robust and even addictive character blending authoring experience." said John van der Burg, Development Director of MysticGD. "While this is a beta version and we are still working hard on the final version, we recognize the value our customers bring to the development process and want their input so we can deliver the best final product possible."

Our goal is to improve animation quality in games and to deliver a complete character solution that takes care of advanced LOD, motion compression, retargeting, mirroring, skinning, geometry export, morphing, Inverse Kinematics, jiggle physics, lipsync and now also parameter driven complex animation blending and transitioning. EMotion FX Extended does exactly that, on both PC and consoles as well as phones.

We encourage everyone that is seriously interested in this new product to contact us. We are especially looking for animators who would like to try our new visual blend tree editing tools.


About MysticGD
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, MysticGD is a leader in real-time character animation products used by game developers such as EA, Ubisoft, Sony Online Entertainment, Smile Gate, WeMade Entertainment, Webzen Inc, Paradox Interactive AB, SKC&C, IMC Games, and Mgame Corporation.

For more information visit http://www.mysticgd.com.


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PRESS CONTACTS:
Email: pr [at] mysticgd [dot] com

For Immediate Release

MysticGD Announces EMotion FX Character Animation for Casual Games

Rotterdam, Netherlands - May 27th, 2010 - MysticGD, a leader in real-time character animation middleware, today announced that it has extended its licensing policy to support Casual Game development on mobile and arcade platforms.

"We are taking a new direction in licensing, based on feedback from this market that we hadn't addressed" said John van der Burg, Development Director of MysticGD. He went on to say "One price does not suit all, there was a need for an EMFX SDK package to suit the shorter development life cycle of the casual games market on Smartphones, iPhone / iPod / iPad and also for the arcade game developers for Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and Playstation Network ".

Technically, this is the complete EMotion FX SDK, out of the box, with the same commitment to support as our longer life cycle customers get. The first couple of licensees have shown us that this is a model that works for those developers and games.

The EMotion FX Software development kit comprises extensive exporters for the latest Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya versions, EMotion Studio which is an extensive character and animation viewer, motion event editor, lip sync setup tool for both artists and programmers , and the EMotion FX runtime - a cross platform optimised runtime animation engine.

To see more about the EMotion FX Character Animation SDK and Exporter you can find the product at http://www.mysticgd.com.


About MysticGD
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, MysticGD is a leader in real-time character animation products used by game developers such as EA, Ubisoft, Sony Online Entertainment, Smile Gate, WeMade Entertainment, Webzen Inc, Paradox Interactive AB, SKC&C, IMC Games, and Mgame Corporation.
For more information visit http://www.mysticgd.com.


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PRESS CONTACTS:
Email: pr [at] mysticgd [dot] com

For Immediate Release

MysticGD releases EMotion FX v3.9

Rotterdam, Netherlands - April 20th, 2010 - MysticGD, a leader in real-time character animation middleware, today announced the release of its latest version of EMotion FX, the real-time character animation and model export system.

The EMotion FX v3.9 contains efficiency improvements, some new features and provides support for the Autodesk Max 2011 and Autodesk Maya 2011. Visual Studio 2010 is also supported.

"This new version of the EMotion FX SDK is one of a series of technical and commercial announcements that we'll be making over the next couple of months said " John van der Burg, Development Director of MysticGD. He added "EMotion FX's Animator user community can look forward to a new Artist tool in the short term".

The most important improvements and additions in v3.9 compared to the previous release are:

Motion event editing: Motion event creation, removal and editing is now intuitively supported by the new EMotion Studio. You can create a set of so called motion event presets which you can then drag and drop onto the event time line. You can also create events without using presets. The API as well as the interface now support several motion event tracks motion per motion used for grouping the events.

Motion meta data files: When saving a motion in EMotion Studio a meta data file will be saved along with it. After re-exporting the motion from Max or Maya, and loading it inside EMotion Studio again, EMStudio will automatically re-apply all the modifications, add the motion events etc.

Compiler support: Visual Studio 2010 is now supported. PlayStation3 project spaces are now using Visual Studio 2008.

Art tool support: Autodesk Maya 2011 and Autodesk Max 2011 are both fully supported

Fixes/Optimizations: Additionally various maintenance fixes are included and memory usage further optimised.


To find out more about EMotion FX v3.9, please visit http://www.mysticgd.com.


About MysticGD
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, MysticGD is a leader in real-time character animation products used by game developers such as EA, Ubisoft, Sony Online Entertainment, WeMade Entertainment, Webzen Inc, Paradox Interactive AB, SKC&C, IMC Games, and Mgame Corporation.
For more information visit http://www.mysticgd.com.

For Immediate Release

EMotion FX character animation SDK is a perfect match for Wii developers

Rotterdam, Netherlands - December 2nd, 2009 - MysticGD, a leader in real-time character animation middleware, today mentioned that the EMotion FX character animation SDK is a perfect animation solution for developers creating games for the Nintendo Wii, both feature and pricing wise.

"EMotion FX offers a lot of very useful features that can really boost performance and reduce memory footprint, especially on platforms such as the Wii. We have spent the last year working closely together with companies such as Ubisoft and Headstrong to make sure we offer the quality level we always aim for. With several successful EMotion FX powered games now in stores for the Wii, it is safe to say that EMotion FX is a great match for this platform." said John van der Burg, Development Director.

Recently MysticGD announced the release of the version 3.8 of their EMotion FX, which contained completely new modern tools and new compression techniques delivering compression rates of up to 25x, which is also a huge benefit on platforms with low amounts of memory.

Todd Kelley, the lead animator at Ubisoft Barcelona mentioned "In Your Shape, EMotion FX was an integral part of all our character and environment animations. Working with them has been a pleasure, as bug-fixes and the addition of new features was handled in a timely manner. I highly recommend EMotion FX to developers that are looking for a complete character solution."

He also added "For our previous game, My Fitness Coach, we needed to include a large amount of motion capture and environmental animations, each exported from different 3D packages, in addition to incorporating real-time lip synching. For these reasons we chose Mystic Game Development’s EMotion FX, and MysticGD has been a great partner to work with. They gave us great support throughout our project, working closely with us to adapt their engine for the Wii platform."

Headstrong's Brynley Gibson mentioned "Incorporating EMotion FX into our engine has enabled us to achieve the ambitious goals we set for animation in our latest Wii projects. Not only has it given us more control over the animation of game characters due to an advanced blending system, but it has also allowed us to pass more power and flexibility over to the animation and design teams." .

To see more about EMotion FX, please visit the product website. Movies demonstrating some of the most important features are available online. You can find EMotion FX at http://www.emotionfx.com.


About MysticGD
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, MysticGD is a leader in realtime character animation products used by leading game developers such as EA, Ubisoft, Sony Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games and many others. For more information visit http://www.mysticgd.com.

For Immediate Release

EMotion FX v3.8 released, now including a completely new EMotion Studio and state of the art motion compression

Rotterdam, Netherlands - October 27th, 2009 - MysticGD, a leader in real-time character animation middleware, today announced the release of its latest version of EMotion FX, the real-time character animation and model export system.

"This release is a major step in the development and future of EMotion FX. A lot of work has been put into the new EMotion Studio. We believe good tools are the future of successful game middleware. Therefore we spent a lot of time writing a completely new EMotion Studio until we knew for sure that it was better than any existing on the market." said John van der Burg, Development Director.

The most important improvements and additions in v3.8 compared to the previous release are:

• New EMotion Studio: a completely new EMotion Studio. It is fully command based, supports undo/redo, multiple viewports, multiple characters, has very modern interfaces, is fully customizable, is scriptable and extensible through custom plugins.


• State-of-the-art Motion Compression: this new compression algorithm makes your motions 8 to 25 times smaller in memory.


• Smaller Motion Files: motion files, even when not compressed using the new algorithm, are now about 30% to 50% smaller in size.


• Improved Deformable Attachment System: it is now possible to add deformable attachments that add new nodes/bones, where these new bones are partially animated separately and partially by the main skeleton . This can simplify very advanced character customization extremely for artists.


• Improved Rendering: the new EMotion Studio now supports more advanced rendering, supporting HDR, blooming, depth of field, normal mapping, specular mapping and rim lighting.


• Improved examples: the examples have been improved to take advantage of the new render engine. There are 50 API examples! The new sample browser allows you to easily browse through them.


• Support for latest 3ds Max and Maya: the latest versions of Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya are fully supported.

To see more about EMotion FX, please visit the product website. Movies demonstrating some of the most important features are available online. You can find EMotion FX at http://www.emotionfx.com.


About MysticGD
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, MysticGD is a leader in realtime character animation products used by leading game developers such as EA, Ubisoft, Sony Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games and many others. For more information visit http://www.mysticgd.com.

For Immediate Release

EMotion FX v3.7 released, now including motion mirroring, a jiggle controller and much more

Rotterdam, Netherlands - December 11th, 2008 - MysticGD, a leader in real-time character animation middleware, today announced the release of its latest version of EMotion FX, the real-time character animation and model export system.

What's new in this release:

- Realtime Motion Mirroring: this feature allows you to mirror the motion, playing the animation data of the left handed side of the character on the right handed side and the other way around. Only one motion is stored in memory. This feature can especially be very useful for sport games.

- Footplant IK Solver: a new inverse kinematics solver has been added, which will make it easier to plant feet on uneven terrain.

- Jiggle Controller: this new controller allows simple physics to be applied on bones. This is very useful to simulate things like hair, small pieces of cloth, boobs and other fatty tissue. This controller uses its own internal physics, so no external physics system is required.

- 64 bit support: we now officially support the x64 platform. New libraries are included as well as 64 bit plugins for 3D Studio Max and Maya.

- DLL support: both EMotion FX and MCore can now be used as a DLL as well, on both x86 and x64 platforms. Note that this is not available in the evaluation version.

- iPhone support: we now also officially support the iPhone platform.

- Performance improvements: Major performance improvements for the Wii platform. Also the PC build has some improved performance again.

- FBX motion loading support inside EMotion Studio. This can useful to directly test mocap data without having to export motions first.

- Exporter improvements: several improvements and fixes have been made to the exporters.

- FX Material improvements: boolean and vector parameters are now also being supported, as well as the active technique name.

- Updated console builds: all supporting the latest SDK's and compilers.

- Wii Example: we added an example that shows how to render on the Wii, using GPU skinning where possible.

- Distributable Exporters: you can now license special exporters that you can ship with your game, so that your end-users can create their own content.

To see more about EMotion FX, please visit the product website. Movies demonstrating some of the most important features are available online. You can find EMotion FX at http://www.emotionfx.com.

About MysticGD
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, MysticGD is a leader in realtime character animation products used by leading game developers such as EA, Ubisoft, Sony Online, Tilted Mill, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co. and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit http://www.mysticgd.com.

For Immediate Release

EMotion FX announces new licenses

Rotterdam, Netherlands - October 20th, 2008 - MysticGD, a leader in realtime character animation middleware welcomes the following new clients:

Tilted Mill
Vizual FX
SKCC
House Of Tales
Digital Worlds
Trine Game Studios
Nowcom Co. Ltd.
Virtual Programming Ltd.
Wizarbox
Wemade
Symmetric Space
10 Tacle
Awins88 GmbH

To see more about EMotion FX, please visit the product website. Movies demonstrating some of the most important features are available online. You can find EMotion FX at http://www.emotionfx.com.

About MysticGD
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, MysticGD is a leader in realtime character animation products used by leading game developers such as EA, Ubisoft, Sony Online, Tilted Mill, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co. and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit http://www.mysticgd.com.

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Media Contact:
+1-617-848-8293

For Immediate Release

MysticGD's Animation SDK EMotion FX now available on Mac


Rotterdam, Netherlands - May 20th, 2008 - MysticGD, a leader in realtime character animation middleware, announced that its realtime game animation middleware product EMotion FX is now officially available on the Mac platform as well.

"The Mac platform is getting more and more market share as well as the Mac gaming sector is getting stronger. We are pleased to support PowerPC and Intel based Macs and are looking forward to work closely together with more Mac developers," said John van der Burg, Development Director of MysticGD.

To see more about EMotion FX, please visit the product website. Movies demonstrating some of the most important features are available online. You can find EMotion FX at http://www.emotionfx.com.

About MysticGD
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, MysticGD is a leader in realtime character animation products used by leading game developers such as EA, Ubisoft, Sony Online, Tilted Mill, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co. and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit http://www.mysticgd.com.

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Media Contact:
pr@mysticgd.com
+1-617-848-8293

For Immediate Release

MysticGD Releases EMotion FX v3.6, Enabling More Detailed In-game Characters Than Ever Before


Rotterdam, Netherlands - January 22nd, 2008 - MysticGD, a leader in real-time character animation middleware, today announced the release of its latest version of EMotion FX, the real-time character animation and model export system.

EMotion FX v3.6 provides intuitive and efficient tools for artists, increasing runtime performance and pushing greater detail to game audiences. EMotion FX v3.6 also showcases a powerful level of detail (LOD) system that allows the developer to tune their model skeletons for optimum runtime performance, while giving artists a workflow pipeline in which they can quickly setup complete in-game characters.

"This new SDK adds exciting new features that are in high demand among game artists and animators. EMotion FX’s tools have been redesigned to make them more intuitive and efficient to accommodate the needs of artists," said John van der Burg, Development Director of MysticGD. "EMotion FX v3.6 is the first of an ongoing campaign of SDK and Tools updates we are making. "

Features in this new SDK product include:

• A new Level of Detail (LOD) system which includes a new Skeletal LOD system that allows the artist to remove things like finger bones for characters that are very small on screen. Also the introduction of Motion LOD leads to significant performance improvements. This feature will simplify animations at runtime, based on a maximum visual error specified by the user.

• A new Geometry LOD system that allows artists to either specify LOD levels for given meshes manually, or let them be generated automatically.

• A ground up rewrite of all documentation included within the SDK, including the addition of a sample browser to easily navigate through the 44 different API examples.

• Improved memory management, making EMotion FX more efficient on consoles.

To see more about EMotion FX v3.6, please visit the product website to view movies demonstrating some of the most important features. You can find EMotion FX at http://www.mysticgd.com.


About MysticGD
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, MysticGD is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as EA Mythic, Ubisoft, Sony Online, Tilted Mill, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit http://www.mysticgd.com. MysticGD is a trade name of EMotion FX B.V.

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Media Contact:
pr@mysticgd.com
+1-617-848-8293

For Immediate Release

MysticGD Announces EMotion FX 3.5 for Sony Computer Entertainment’s "PLAYSTATION®3"

Rotterdam, Netherlands – July 25, 2007 — Mystic Game Development, a pioneer in real-time character animation middleware, today announced that its latest next-gen product, EMotion FX 3, the real-time character animation SDK for next generation multi-core processor systems is now available for game titles developed for Sony Computer Entertainment’s "PLAYSTATION®3".

"We are pleased to join Sony Computer Entertainment’s Tools and Middleware program for "PLAYSTATION®3". The next generation EMotion FX which was released last year, was specifically designed to take advantage of the latest advances in next generation hardware focused on parallel processing. As EMotion FX 3.5 is now available on PLAYSTATION®3, we are looking forward to seeing what game developers will do with it." said John van der Burg, Development Director of MysticGD.

"The EMotion FX product has been meeting the character animation needs of game developers since 2001 and our clients are driving the changes that we make to the EMotion FX product. They wanted next generation performance, memory efficiency and cross platform support as well as clear focus on reducing the artist effort required to delivering high quality next-gen character content in their games."

EMotion FX 3.5 features include:
- Real-time motion retargeting
- Tight integration with 3D Studio Max and Maya using new and improved plug-ins
- Multi-processor and Multi-core support, Multi platform support
- All the motion blending features you can imagine
- Facial animation and high quality automatic lip-sync generation
- Advanced Inverse Kinematics and Look-at controllers
- A powerful motion event / trigger system
- Easy character customization down to per-bone level
- Over 50 API programming examples
- Very detailed tutorial style documentation as well an API reference

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.

"PlayStation" is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.


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Media Contact:
pr@mysticgd.com
+1-617-848-8293

www.webzen.com

About Mystic Game Development

Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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Media Contact:
pr@mysticgd.com
+1-617-848-8293

www.metaversum.de

About Mystic Game Development

Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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Media Contact:
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+1-617-848-8293

www.paradoxplaza.com

About Mystic Game Development

Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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+1-617-848-8293

www.egosoft.de

About Mystic Game Development

Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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+1-617-848-8293

For Immediate Release

EMotion FX 3 Licensed by Tilted Mill Entertainment for Real Time Strategy titles

Rotterdam, Netherlands – February 27, 2007 - Mystic Game Development, today announced that Tilted Mill Entertainment has licensed the EMotion FX character animation SDK for current projects.

"Using EMotionFX as the framework for our model and animation system on our current project has allowed our programming team to focus on the engine details needed to make our game unique." said Chris Beatrice, President of Tilted Mill Entertainment. "EMotion FX 3 has eliminated the need to create custom animation and model systems for our game. Their support team has been one of the most responsive 3rd parties we've worked with -- their rapid assistance and ready-made tools for our art pipeline have made all aspects of our development go very smoothly."

"Tilted Mill is known for their historical simulation games such as the recent Caesar IV. We are looking forward to working with them as they use EMotion FX 3. " said John van der Burg, Development Director of Mystic Game Development. "With the power of EMotion FX 3, game developers like Tilted Mill access a full animation system with everything from facial animation, full body animation, per character multiple animation blending, IK and character customization out of the box as well as the additional features and the performance developers need to produce and run character art as quickly and efficiently as demanded by the games of today."

About Tilted Mill Entertainment
Tilted Mill, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, was established in 2002 by veteran game developers dedicated to the creation of the highest quality strategy games, role-playing games and simulations for the PC and other gaming platforms. For more information, visit www.tiltedmill.com

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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Media Contact:
pr@mysticgd.com
+1-617-848-8293

www.kuju.com

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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Media Contact:
pr@mysticgd.com
+1-617-848-8293

For Immediate Release

Crocodile Clips to use EMotion FX character animation in educational simulation software

Rotterdam, Netherlands – February 6, 2007 - Mystic Game Development, a pioneer in real-time character animation middleware, today announced that Crocodile Clips has licensed the technology of EMotion FX.

"Crocodile Clips has recently introduced 3D objects into it's educational simulation software range." said Andrew Hall, CEO of Crocodile Clips."So that we can extend our 3D capability further we have chosen EMotion FX in order to add sophisticated character animation. Our decision was based on a detailed analysis of the options. EMotion FX won on superior design and ease-of-use."

"EMotion FX is known for its flexibility, performance and ease of use, and we believe our realtime middleware SDK to be equally flexible for developers outside of the game industry" said John van der Burg, Development Director of Mystic Game Developement. "With our technologies, simulation developers can add animated characters quickly to their applications, using the same world-class technology employed to make some of the most popular character based games.

About Crocodile Clips
Crocodile Clips, established in 1994, is a fast growing Edinburgh, Scotland based technology frim. The company develops and publishes educational software for schools and colleges worldwide. Crocodile Clips software is now used in over 50 countries worldwide, and in around 70% of UK secondary schools. Crocodile Clips is recommended by educationalists and governments for its innovative approach to teaching and learning. Crocodile Clips software is developed specifically for education, and so we can focus on what teachers and students really need from the packages they use. Above all, we ensure that all of our software is both easy to use and factually accurate. For more information, visit www.crocodile-clips.com

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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Media Contact:
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+1-617-848-8293

http://www.joyon.com/home.html

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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Media Contact:
pr@mysticgd.com
+1-617-848-8293

For Immediate Release

Ani-Park Inc Game Title to use the EMotion FX Character Animation System

Rotterdam, Netherlands – November 7, 2006 - Mystic Game Development, a pioneer in real-time character animation middleware, today announced that Ani-Park Inc, has chosen EMotion FX for a new game.

"EMotion FX is the most essential engine in developing our game" said Dong-Hyun Kim, Executive Producer at Ani-Park Inc. "EMotion FX supports almost every specification that we wanted to obtain. We firmly believe that with EMotion FX we are now able to realize our character engine with the quality we desire in a very short time. We are even inspired by various functions of EMotion FX, so that now we expect to elevate the quality of the final game by utilizing the best of EMotion FX.

Having worked with Ani_Park team since 2005, I am pleased by their feedback" said John van der Burg, Development Director at Mystic Game Development. "I am glad to see that customers like Ani-Park Inc are very satisified by the technological innovations that we placed in the latest version of EMotion FX."

Dong-Hyun Kim went on to say "We recommend EMotion FX as the best engine for solving character and animation challenges"

About Ani-Park Inc
Founded in 2000 by a group of students with a common bond for the love of games, Anipark has helped pave the way for the adaptation of 3D graphics to the online game market of South Korea. Since then, Anipark has continued to aid the growth of both the gaming and animation sectors by providing software utilizing 3D graphics technology. Our first title, 'Project A3' was the first MMORPG rated 'mature' in South Korea for its life-like graphics and realistic effects. Online baseball MaguMagu defied existing perception that baseball is a difficult subject for an online game, further showing our ability, in both planning as well as developing, to tackle a wide variety of genres. For more information, visit www.ani-park.com.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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Nominated as the Best game of E3 by IGN, Awards granted as Best game of E3 by many international journalists – it seems like the sky's the limit: Now, PC Games readers voted for Gothic 3, calling it the best and most wanted Game of this year's E3.

This game is now available.

For more information, visit www.gothic3.com.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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TNO Defence, Security and Safety provides innovative contributions to the advance of comprehensive security and is a strategic partner of the Dutch Ministry of Defence to build up the defence knowledge-base.

TNO is working on next generation serious game concepts for civil and defense customers. Gaming technology enables the creation of intuitive, real-time, richly interactive and convincing environments that help our customers to increase the effectiveness of learning systems and operations support systems. EmotionFX enables us to add believable characters to these game concepts.

For more information, visit www.tno.nl.

About Mystic Game Development

Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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For more information, visit www.buddybuddy.co.kr.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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For more information, visit www.redt.co.kr.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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Founded in 1996, MGame Corporation is a Korean videogame developer that specializes in online production. It's best known for titles such as Droiyan, Darksaver, Bomberman Online and The Legend of Ares.

For more information, visit www.mgame.com.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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For more information, visit www.game2joy.com.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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For Immediate Release

Highly anticipated Vanguard: Saga of Heroes MMORPG using the EMotion FX Character Animation System at E3

Rotterdam, Netherlands – May 10, 2006 - Mystic Game Development, a pioneer in real-time character animation middleware, today announced that Sigil Game Online's Vanguard: Saga of Heroes was built using Mystic's EMotion FX real-time character animation technology as a core component. The MMORPG game, which received coverage in all 3 major US PC magazines recently, is being shown at E3 in LA this week.

"Having met and worked with the Sigil team since 2004, we set out to evolve EMotion FX as it was then, into the production SDK it is now. Put it this way, imagine having 2000 different characters and having to animate them all individually. Instead, you animate just 1 character and play back the same motion data on all characters, so saving a huge amount of animator time" said John van der Burg, Development Director at Mystic Game Development. "We are delighted to see what Sigil has been creating and look forward to playing the game".

"To give a character over 500 unique motions and very detailed character customization down to a per bone level needs a special Animation product" continues John van der Burg, from Mystic Game Development. "When you are creating a game with the scope and scale of Vanguard you need the right animation engine and the right support"

"EMotion FX has given us the ability to have myriad distinct player character models while allowing us to share most of the mesh assets and animations," said Kevin McPherson, Senior Programmer at Sigil Games Online. "I have found the API easy to integrate, well written, and it supports the variety of complex features we needed for our character and animation systems. These systems include asset sharing through retargeting and shrink-wrapping, customization, look-at controllers, and motion blending/mixing.I recommend EMotion FX to developers that are looking for a total character solution."

About Sigil Games Online
Based in Carlsbad, California, Sigil Games Online is a studio dedicated to creating massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Founded in 2002 by Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler, key figures in the development of award-winning EverQuest, the company plans to be a driving force in the continued evolution of this unique genre. Sigil Games Online is comprised of an all-star team of experienced developers with an impressive pedigree of commercially successful and critically acclaimed online games. For more information, visit www.sigilgames.com.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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For Immediate Release

Mystic Game Development to Integrate AGEIA PhysX Technology into
newly released EMotion FX 3 Character Animation System

Support for AGEIA PhysX Processor Enables Unprecedented Interactivity for Game Characters driven by Mystic Game Development's EMotion FX 3

Mountain View and San Jose, Calif. – March 22, 2006 - AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced that Mystic Game Development is integrating AGEIA PhysX technology with its real-time character animation system EMotion FX 3.

EMotion FX 3 is a cross platform character animation SDK that helps developers create lifelike, emotionally expressive game characters by using advanced real-time animation features such as inverse kinematics, facial animation, lip-sync technology, and much more. With AGEIA PhysX technology, EMotion FX 3 enables game developers to incorporate both visual realism and intense physical realism, as characters respond to the environment according to the laws of physics.

"AGEIA PhysX technology is a powerful complement to EMotion FX 3, and our developers are integrating it seamlessly into our developer-friendly environment," said John van der Burg, Development Director at Mystic Game Development. "There’s never been an easier and more effective way for game developers to create lifelike, expressive characters for their games."

"Effective character animation is a key element in creating a compelling game experience, and MysticGD's EMotion FX 3 is a powerful tool for developers who want to enhance the realism of their characters," said Kathy Schoback, vice president of content acquisition at AGEIA. "With AGEIA PhysX technology integrated into EMotion FX 3, game developers can create characters that not only look real, but act real and feel real to gamers."

About AGEIA
AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., is the pioneer of hardware-accelerated physics for PC games and has developed the world’s first dedicated physics processor, the AGEIA PhysX processor. The AGEIA PhysX processor powers massive and pervasive real-time interactive worlds that for the first time obey the laws of classical physics. AGEIA provides a world-class cross platform software development kit to simplify advanced physics programming for the PhysX processor, as well next-generation gaming consoles. AGEIA is changing the face of gaming by working with more than sixty leading developers and publishers to deliver the next generation of physically immersive entertainment. The company, headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is privately-held. For more information visit www.ageia.com.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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For Immediate Release

EMotion FX 3 Character Animation System now supporting Xbox 360

Rotterdam, Netherlands - March 20, 2006 - Mystic Game Development, a pioneer in real-time character animation middleware, today announced that its latest next-gen product, EMotion FX 3, the real-time character animation SDK for next generation multi-core processor systems, will fully support the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft

"We've been inundated with requests for EMotion FX on the Xbox 360 since last year, and we are now giving game developers what they've asked for." said John van der Burg, Development Director at Mystic Game Development. "The architecture of the Xbox 360 perfectly fits the multi-processing design of EMotion FX 3. With the Xbox 360 console, EMotion FX 3 enables game developers to rewrite the laws of character believability and animation quality."

"Mystic Game Development's EMotion FX 3 will help game developers quickly breathe life into the kind of next generation characters that players demand" said Tracey Frankcom, Xbox Tools & Middleware Manager

EMotion FX 3 for the Xbox 360 is now available to interested Xbox 360 developers.

EMotion FX 3 features include:
- Real-time motion retargeting
- Tight integration with 3D Studio Max and Maya using new and improved plug-ins
- Multi-processor and Multi-core support
- Multi platform support
- All the motion blending features you can imagine
- Facial animation and high quality automatic lip-sync generation
- Advanced Inverse Kinematics and Look-at controllers
- A powerful motion event / trigger system
- Easy character customization down to per-bone level
- Over 50 API programming examples
- Very detailed tutorial style documentation as well an API reference

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™ is Coming

Mythic Entertainment® Reveals First Details of MMORPG
Based on the Warhammer Fantasy License

Fairfax, VA - March 16, 2006 - Mythic Entertainment, developer and publisher of the critically-acclaimed massively-multiplayer online role-playing game Dark Age of Camelot®, today formally announced the title and first details for its latest MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™ (WAR). Based on Games Workshop’s popular Warhammer® fantasy world, WAR features next generation Realm vs. Realm™ (RvR) gameplay that integrates PvP and PvE combat into a single seamless experience. The game is scheduled for release in 2007 on the PC.

"WAR is coming!" proclaimed Mark Jacobs, President and CEO at Mythic Entertainment. "We're well into our first year of intensive design and development on the game that we believe will usher in the next generation of truly great MMO's. With our expertise in RvR and a rich fantasy setting that is in a perpetual state of conflict, WAR promises to be a game unlike any other."

"The core concept behind WAR is simple – war is everywhere," explains Lance Robertson, Producer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. "This world, dominated by force of arms and magic, provides a wonderfully rich setting for an MMO. Our game will give player entrance into this world to experience the epic nature of war and the glory of battle. Every aspect of the game, including PvE content, is geared towards the greater war in some important way."

To learn more about WAR, visit the game’s newly redesigned website: www.warhammeronline.com. Sign up for the monthly newsletter to receive exclusive stories, art, and game information, as well as a chance to take part in the games beta test.

About the Age of Reckoning
It is a desperate time for the Emperor. A terrible Chaos Plague defiles his lands, ravaging the populace and weakening his armies. Meanwhile, the Dwarf holds in the nearby World’s Edge Mountains have come under siege by a massive greenskin horde. Honor-bound by an ancient oath, the ruler of the greatest nation of men in the Old World has dispatched several regiments to assist the embattled Dwarfs, further depleting the Empire’s already thin defenses.

In this dark hour, a new threat appears. Under a sky darkened by a crimson eclipse, a great warhost erupts from the wastelands of the north. Bearing the banner of Tzeentch, Changer of the Ways, the army of Chaos marches south for the borders of the Empire, crushing everything in its path.

With the Dwarfs fighting desperately to slow the ferocious greenskin "Waaagh!", the Emperor realizes that his only hope of defeating the encroaching legions of Chaos lies with the High Elves of Ulthuan. Upon receiving the Emperor’s dire plea for help, Finubar, Phoenix King of the High Elves, sets sail at the head of a mighty fleet of warships laden with battalions of High Elf warriors.

No sooner have the Elven fleet weighed anchor in the Imperial capital of Altdorf, when word comes of a new menace: the vile Dark Elves have invaded the island of Ulthuan! It now becomes terribly clear to the Phoenix King, the Emperor and the High King of the Dwarfs that a vast conspiracy is at work. In his heart, Finubar knows that only Malekith, Witch King of Naggaroth and Lord of the Dark Elves, could orchestrate such a plot. He is not mistaken.

Months earlier, Malekith’s seers had foretold the coming attack on the Empire by the forces of Chaos. The Lord of Naggaroth moved swiftly to capitalize on this rare opportunity. Using his formidable arcane powers, Malekith forged amulets of dark magic and gifted them to the leaders of the most powerful Orc tribes in the greenskin lands. Within each talisman were bound potent spells to greatly increase the strength and fortitude of the Orcs, but the treacherous Witch King secretly included one additional spell - a spell of command that compelled the tribal warriors to unleash their boundless aggression on the mountain holds of the Dwarfs. The cunning Lord of the Dark Elves knew that if the Emperor could not rely on his Dwarf allies for help, he would have no choice but to call upon the High Elves.

Mere hours after Finubar’s war fleet had set sail for the Old World, Malekith launched a massive invasion against the island home of his hated kin. Scores of Black Arks descended upon the vulnerable lands of the unsuspecting High Elves. Rank upon rank of Naggaroth’s fiercest warriors belched forth from their dark depths, and with them came nightmarish beasts and terrifying engines of war.

Surrounded on all sides by fearsome adversaries bent on their annihilation, the leaders of the Dwarfs, the High Elves and the Empire forge a pact to fight together as one power. The Alliance of Order is born, and its members swear an oath never to lay down their swords until their enemies are destroyed.

Now, the greatest armies ever assembled collide in an epic war pitting the forces of darkness and destruction against a stalwart alliance of men, Elves and Dwarfs. A new age is dawning in the world of Warhammer. It is an age of bitter rivalry and lethal conflict, of vile treachery and legendary heroism. This is the Age of Reckoning.

About Warhammer®
Games Workshop created the Warhammer world more than 23 years ago, as the setting for its wildly successful tabletop fantasy war game of the same name. Since then the game has been released in six editions, had dozens of supplements, and been the basis for tens of thousands of unique model soldier designs, making it one of the most well documented and detailed fantasy settings in existence. The world itself is a dark and forbidding fantasy realm, where Elves, Orcs, Dwarfs, Undead, and many other races clash constantly in mighty battles seeking domination over each other. Meanwhile, the insidious forces of Chaos strive to undermine the basic fabric of society both from within and by the direct invasion of its legions of daemons, beastmen and warped human champions.

The Warhammer community stretches across the world, supported by Games Workshop’s 330+ stores, 4000+ independent retailers, and many games clubs, tournaments and events such as the annual Games Days and Golden Demon awards in the UK, USA, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Australia. There is also a thriving web community based around the official website and many thousands of fan sites.

About Mythic Entertainment®
Mythic Entertainment is celebrating its tenth year anniversary as one of the most successful developers and publishers of massively-multiplayer online role-playing games in the world. Credited with 15 online games, including the award winning Dark Age of Camelot, Mythic’s success is based on proprietary technology, superior game design and exemplary customer service delivered by a talented staff of more than 170 people. Dark Age of Camelot is played in almost every country in the world, and is available in seven languages.

About Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group PLC is the world's largest tabletop war games company. Based in Nottingham, UK, it designs, manufactures and distributes its range of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 games, model soldiers, novels, collectible card games, and role-playing games through more than 330 of its own Hobby centers, mail order, Internet and more than 4,000 independent retailers in more than 50 countries worldwide. Games Workshop, Warhammer, and all images, races and characters from the Warhammer universe are either a TM and/or © Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2006, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. All rights reserved.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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For Immediate Release

EMotion FX 3, Next Generation character animation SDK, to be available on March 20th 2006

Rotterdam, Netherlands, March 8, 2006. Mystic Game Development, the market leader in realtime character animation middleware, today announced that it has been developing EMotion FX 3, a new next generation multi-processor character animation SDK for the last 18 months. EMotion FX 3 will be commercially available on March 20th..

"EMotion FX 3 is a major new product for us and is the result of our recent development efforts" said John van der Burg, Mystic Game Development’s founder and Development Director. He went on to say "The EMotion FX product has been meeting the character animation needs of game developers since 2001. Our clients are driving the changes that we make to the EMotion FX product range. They wanted next generation performance and memory efficiency as well as clear focus on reducing the artist effort required to delivering high quality next-gen character content in their games. EMotion FX 3 delivers this and more."

EMotion FX 3 features include:
- Realtime motion retargeting
- Tight integration with 3D Studio Max and Maya using new and improved plugins
- Multi-processor and Multi-core support
- Multi platform support
- All the motion blending features you can imagine
- Facial animation and high quality automatic lipsync generation
- Advanced Inverse Kinematics and Lookat controllers
- A powerful motion event / trigger system
- Easy character customization down to per-bone level
- Over 50 API programming examples
- Very detailed tutorial style documentation as well an API reference

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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Mystic Game Development today announced that the following companies have licensed EMotion FX for current and future projects.

Ani-Park Co., Ltd, Website
GOLFZON CO., LTD. Website
NTIXSoft Co., Ltd. Website

About Mystic Game Development

Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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House of Tales chooses EMotion FX

Rotterdam, NL – October 11th, 2005, the creators of The Moment of Silence and Mysteries of the Druids, will use the Emotion FX real-time character animation technology to power the characters in their next title Overclocked.

"Our games are highly character-driven, so we were in need of a technology with powerful features to create true-to-live character motion and facial expression." Said Tobias Schachte, Development Director of House of Tales. "With EMotion FX, we get an engine which makes this possible, together with a very straight OOP-Interface and great support."

House of Tales

House of Tales Entertainment GmbH, was founded in 1999, and concerns itself with the development of action-adventure based games. Known for its PC adventures The Mystery of the Druids and The Moment of Silence. House of Tales recently announced their newest title "Overclocked" at the Leipzig Game Convention 2005.

About Mystic Game Development

Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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10tacle studios today announced that GT Legends, illustrating the new racing game developed by SimBin, has been approved for manufacturing and will ship at the beginning of October. Trying to recreate the period of great racing adventures of the 60s and 70s, the game is built on a new engine, hence improved graphics and features over 90 GT and touring cars of the past generations, like the Austin Mini Cooper S, the Ford Capri or the Mercedes 300 SL. Grab the demo if you haven't done so yet.

About Mystic Game Development

Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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About Golf Licenses EMotion FX

Rotterdam, NL – AboutGolf Limited, producer of the AboutGolf Simulator, will use Mystic Game Development’s Emotion FX real-time character animation technology in their future advanced golf simulations.

"AboutGolf selected the EMotion FX engine for three reasons: seamless integration into our existing code base; the robust feature set; and the fantastic technical support we received even during initial evaluation of the engine." Said Derek Smith, Technical Director of AboutGolf. "Its an excellent product backed by a dedicated staff."

AboutGolf Limited
AboutGolf has been in the golf simulation technology business since 1988, having produced Greg Norman Ultimate Challenge Golf, Microsoft Golf, and the world's most widely distributed golf simulation, World Tours. AboutGolf released its groundbreaking indoor golf simulator in 2003, and is the fastest-growing golf simulator producer in the world.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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In recent years Germany's Leipzig "Games Convention" has risen as the premiere event on the continent. All the major software and hardware developers are present with demos for both press and public. See these press links for 2 EMotion FX powered games presented at the show.

Gothic 3 (Piranha Bytes)
GT Legends (Simbin Development Team)

About Mystic Game Development

Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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For Immediate Release

EMotion FX Real-Time Character Animation System Now Faster, Leaner And With An Improved Art Pipeline.

Rotterdam, Netherlands, January 24, 2005 - Mystic Game Development, middleware SDK animation developer, today announced the release of their newest EMotion FX real-time character animation library. This latest version (v2.15) is faster and leaner than previous versions and has an updated feature set that includes improved export paths for the Character Art Production Pipeline.

"EMotion FX v2.15 was developed for increased performance, decreased memory usage and to speed up the animation production pipeline," said John van der Burg, Mystic Game Development founder and Development Director. He went on to say "Our clients are driving the changes that we make to EMotion FX, and they want to dramatically reduce the time it takes to produce quality character art and motion. EMotion FX for all genres and particularly for MMO and character rich games, will continue to deliver successes in this area."

Main changes and additions to EMotion FX:
- Performance improvements: The blending and interpolation of EMotion FX have been optimized by up to 50%. This is especially noticeable when using hardware skinning.
- Memory optimizations: EMotion FX now has significantly reduced the number of allocations and overhead caused.
- Batch Exporters: This functionality for Max and Maya, now allows the user to export all their animation files in one shot, with support for individual exporter options per file. This enhancement is useful to those wanting to export low LOD versions of models and animations with simplified skinning or motion quality etc.
- Preview Plugins: Single button, Instant real-time preview of models and motions in Max and Maya is now also included. Custom viewers can also be specified, allowing artists to view their models in their own game viewers also.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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For Immediate Release

EMotion FX v2.1 Realtime Character Animation System Delivers Major Enhancements To Realism In Games

Rotterdam, Netherlands – June 22, 2004 – Mystic Game Development , middleware SDK animation developer, today announced the release of version 2.1 of their EMotion FX realtime character animation library. The latest release features a system to dynamically assemble characters from different body parts, improved and new inverse kinematics solvers, memory optimizations as well as an improved "Look-At" controller and improvements to the EMotion Studio artist tool.

"EMotion FX v2.1 implements many customer requests as well as adding new functionality and extending the palette of character tools available to the artist and programmer" said John van der Burg, Mystic Game Development founder and Development Director.

Main changes and additions of v2.1:

- Character factory: Construction of characters from different body parts which can be fully skinned and deformed is a new feature. Remove or replace body parts at runtime, allowing limbs to be ripped off by explosions or for characters to age during a game.
- Motion based actor repositioning: This is a new feature permitting automatic movement of characters based on motions. Developers no longer need to slide or move their characters by estimating the most visually appealing speed. Using this feature, the character feet won't be seen to slide.
- "Look-At" controller enhancements: This feature has been rewritten to support rotational constraints using spherical ellipsoids, which gives realistic results. Also the responsiveness of the controller can be setup to make eyes move faster than for example the head itself.
- EMotion Studio improvements: New features include testing of LOD levels, integrated motion based actor repositioning testing, character factory testing, improved physics setup, improved bone display, a schematic view to easily view and locate node names, synchronization of body and facial animation, and an overall improved interface.
- Inverse Kinematics: The CCD controller has been improved to add stability and to find more solutions. Also joint limits are now supported in the CCD controller. Those limits can setup and exported directly from 3D Studio Max or Maya. An additional Jacobian Pseudo Inverse IK controller has been added with full support for joint limits.
- Keyframe compression: Compression for keyframe data with built-in support for compressed floats, vectors and quaternions. The compression and decompression is transparent to the end user. The product is extensible, allowing the user to plug in further compressed types or compression and decompression routines.
- Improved exporters: Both the 3D Studio Max and Maya exporters have been improved with additional features, such as the exporting of any number of UV sets. This is especially useful when you like to export lightmaps as well, for your level geometry. Also support for the 3D Studio Max 6 DirectX material has been added, allowing your artists to setup and export shader parameters.
- Memory management and optimization: Detailed memory usage statistics are available for memory profiling during production. The overall memory footprint has also been reduced, allowing you to use the saved memory for other things.
- DirectX 9 rendering: A new DirectX 9 based actor is included, which uses the Direct3D 9 Effects system. The actor supports LOD, cloning and facial animation.

More information about the product and the complete feature set can be found at the product website. The website has also been updated with several new downloadable screenshots and movies. Companies interested in evaluating EMotion FX will find the appropriate contact information there also.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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For Immediate Release

EMotion FX 2 brings a huge leap forward in Character Animation to the Middleware arena

Emotion FX 2 delivers Real Time Inverse Kinematics, Facial Animation, Lip-Synching, Hardware shaders and physics controllers to its Skeletal Animation SDK.

Rotterdam, Netherlands, February 10, 2004 – " The EMotion FX 2 SDK has been designed and built to increase the expressive range of your characters and to give the professional developer a character animation SDK that will help them realize game characters that are as life-like and emotionally expressive as possible. " according to MGD founder and Development Director John van der Burg, further he adds "Our customers for EMotion FX 2 are developing games and online worlds where end users can invest their personalities in bringing their characters to life."

"EMotion FX 2 has been developed to give game developers flexibility, aid in the achievement of visual quality, enhance memory performance, be easily interoperable with Max and Maya, and to help developers reduce the amount of animations needed for a particularly result."

EMotion FX 2's features include:

A series of Real Time Inverse Kinematics solvers.

- The Facial animation system allows you to use both bone based and mesh based facial animations. Sharing facial animations between characters is also supported.
- Lip-sync can be automatically generated from wave files and is editable for tuning.
- Vertex buffer information is structured to be passed readily to the various graphics APIs so that mesh deformations are performed on the GPU rather than the CPU.
- Physics controllers designed to allow the easy addition of rag doll support for physics systems are included.
- Enhanced Motion blending, mixing, sharing and masking.
- An attachment system for secondary objects.
- Instancing characters including the ability keep unique materials per actor.
- Level of detail tuning per actor.
- An Interpolation system that incorporates a range of techniques to guarantee the best possible smoothness of motions.
- A modular collision detection system that can work on skinned meshes as well as on collision meshes when hardware skinning is used.
- Exporter support for latest versions of 3d Studio Max (6.0) and Maya (5) and for versions going back to 3D Studio max 4 and Maya 4.
- A hardware efficient mesh system.
- Mesh deformer functionality similar to the modifier stack approach in 3DS Max.
- A material system to provide you with all the information you require to render the character(s).
- An open and extensible, chunk based file format.
- Easy to use software deformation functionality for developers wanting to provide it.
- An attribute system to use per vertex and node custom attribute information.
- Key framing templates to aid developers that can be used to animate every kind of value, such as positions, colors, intensities, etc.
- A normal map generator that can aid you in using low poly characters that look like highly detailed characters.
- Constraints that aid you in more quickly and efficiently producing the desired animation result
- Documentation for Artists and Programmers including video of the export process, Press Release a trouble shooting guide, a large number of tutorials, paste-able code snippet examples, and a series of simple example projects demonstrating each feature.
All of this and the API reference guide.
- EMotion Studio, which is a tool that can be used as a model viewer, to setup physics, test attachments, create a facial setup, view motions, animate the face, and perform Lip-sync.

About Mystic Game Development
Founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1999, Mystic Game Development is a pioneer in real-time character animation products used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment, Sigil Games Online, Webzen, SimBin, Nexon Corporation, IMC Games, Piranha Bytes, EGN Co., and DragonFly GF Co. For more information visit www.emotionfx.com.



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