Monday, April 16th, 2012 Posted by Jim Thacker

Martin Wengenmayer releases Cheetah3D 6.0


Cheetah3D 6.0 integrates Bullet physics for rigid body and soft body dynamics simulation.

Developer Martin Wengenmayer has released a new version of Cheetah3D, his affordable Mac-only 3D app.

Cheetah3D 6.0 becomes the latest 3D application to integrate the open source Bullet physics library to simulate rigid body and soft body dynamics.

Other features of version 6.0 include new parametric object types, extended support for FBX and Collada – the latter to improve compatibility with Apple’s iBooks Author design app – and support for 16-bit textures.

Cheetah3D has achieved a cult following in the Mac community for the clarity of its UI and workflow, and for its low price tag: further reduced in this release from $149 to just $99.

PRESS RELEASE (Excerpts)
Today sees the release of Cheetah 6.0. The biggest change in v6.0 is, without a doubt, the smooth integration of the industry-proven Bullet physics engine for the simulation of rigid-body and soft-body dynamics. No matter if you want to spill a bowl of marbles onto the floor or to simulate a waving flag in the wind: Cheetah3D 6.0 can handle it with just a few mouse clicks.

In addition to the new dynamics features, Cheetah3D 6.0 adds support for Isosurfaces (Metaballs), the keying of mesh vertices and spline control points, improved iBooks Author compatibility, an upgraded FBX SDK, support for 16-bit textures and much, much more.

To make Cheetah3D available to an even wider audience, the price of Cheetah3D has been cut from $149 to just $99. An Upgrade from an older version costs $69.

For customers who bought Cheetah3D 5.x after Dec. 12th 2010, the upgrade to v6.0 is free.

Major new features in Cheetah3D 6.0:

  • Simulation of rigid-body and soft-body dynamics using the industry-proven Bullet physics engine
  • Seamless integration of the physics engine with interactive realtime preview
  • Simulation baking for complex scenes
  • Isosurfaces (Metaballs) with support for balls, vertices, particles and splines
  • Keying (animation) of mesh vertices and spline control points
  • New parametric object types
    Capsule
    Fractal
    Isosurface
    Line
  • New mesh modifiers
    Smooth
    Shell
    Crumple
  • Global scene search field: you can now search all objects and materials interactively
  • Improved sweep and bevel tools
  • Even more hotkeys and customizable colors
  • Improved Collada export (iBooks Author compatible)
  • Upgraded to the latest FBX SDK (v2012.2)
  • Greatly extended Javascript API offers access to animation data (F-Curves)
  • Support for OS X Lion full-screen mode
  • Support for 16-bit textures
  • And much, much more!

Visit the Cheetah3D website