January 6, 1994

VIRTUS WALKTHROUGH PRO WINS EDDY FROM MACUSER
 
Cary, N.C.- Virtus Corp.'s 3-D modeling and visualization program, Virtus WalkThrough Pro, has won a coveted 1993 Editor's Choice award from MacUser Magazine. The award, known as an Eddy, recognizes the best Macintosh products released during the year.

Competing in the best new computer-aided visualization software category, Virtus WalkThrough Pro won over Alias Research's Alias Upfront 2.0 and Artifice Inc.'s Design Workshop 2.0.

"The Eddy is a very desirable award in our industry," said David Smith, Virtus founder and president. "We were in the company of some of the most innovative products on the market, so it's a great honor to be recognized by MacUser as one of the best."

Maggie Canon, MacUser's editor-in-chief said, "As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Macintosh, it is strikingly evident by the 1993 finalists that this is just the beginning of where innovation and creativity can take us."

MacUser, a leading monthly magazine for business users of Macintosh computers, selected finalists for the Eddy award based on the products' technological innovation, quality, performance, user friendliness and value to Macintosh users. Winners in the 36 categories were announced January 4 at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco.
 
A 3-D drawing and visualization program, Virtus WalkThrough Pro enables users to add textures to 3-D environments to enhance the realism of set designs, home remodeling layouts, multimedia presentations, crime scene re-creations and other 3-D environments. Pro's libraries include everything from carpet and tile for interiors to grass and trees for outdoor scenes. 

The program supports all PICT-format images, whether imported from its own texture libraries or created elsewhere. A picture of a painting, for example, can be manipulated in Adobe Photoshop and placed as a texture. The product also allows users to integrate Apple QuickTime movies as textures, introducing animation to internal and external scenes. For example, a tv in a living room scene could display a commercial or movie, or viewers could look through a window to see clouds moving outside. 

Detailed models with texture mapping are memory- and power-intensive and will perform best on high-end machines, so Virtus recommends using a color Macintosh with a 68040 processor and 8MB of RAM allocated to Virtus WalkThrough Pro. (Later this year, the program will be available for Windows users.)

About Virtus Corp.
Founded in 1990, Virtus Corp. is based in Cary, N.C. Since then, the company's 3-D drawing and visualization technology has been employed in the development of major motion pictures such as "The Abyss" and "The Firm," and used throughout the world by architects, set designers, interior designers, marketing consultants and other professionals. 

Virtus' first product, Virtus WalkThrough for the Macintosh, won MacUser's Breakthrough Product of the Year award upon its release in 1990. In November 1993, Virtus WalkThrough for Windows won PC/Computing's Most Valuable Product of the Year award. The company's newest product, Virtus VR, is now available for the Macintosh, while Virtus VR for Windows begins shipping this month. 

Privately held, Virtus is backed by Motorola Inc.'s New Enterprises Division, author Tom Clancy and filmmaker Michael Backes, among others. The company is rapidly emerging as a leader in real-time 3-D rendering and visualization, providing software that allows home users and creative professionals alike to quickly model and share their visual concepts.

For more information, please contact: Frank Boosman, vice president of product marketing, Virtus Corp., 919/467-9700