Viewpoint Unleashes the Potential of High-Resolution Photography and Delivers First-Ever Flash Compatibility and Interactive 3D in a Single Rich Media Platform

Business Wire, June 12, 2001

Business & Technology Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 12, 2001

Viewpoint Continues to Expand the Market Potential for Rich Media

Applications With Significant New Capabilities for the Viewpoint

Media Player

Viewpoint Corporation (Nasdaq: VWPT), a leader in digital marketing solutions, today announced the availability of ZoomView(TM) and Flash Compatibility capabilities for the Viewpoint Media Player.

Now designers and developers can incorporate high-resolution images and photos, and Macromedia Flash(TM) content with Viewpoint's trademark 3D visualization and interactive capabilities in a single cohesive platform for online visual marketing.

Viewpoint leverages almost ten years of graphics savvy to be the first to market with a single platform that incorporates the best of current technology for the Web - 3D user-controlled visualization, high-resolution 2D images and Flash compatibility - at market-standard bandwidths. Additionally, Viewpoint's newly developed Flash component allows for playback of Flash content and complete integration with 3D animation and all other media types including IPIX, QTVR Panoramas and Object Movies, which has never been possible on the Internet.

"3-D by itself is not enough," said Viewpoint Executive Vice President of Engineering, Anders Vinberg. "The ability to combine rich media techniques in one platform is a breakthrough for developers and marketers," he continued. "We sharply increase the genuine feel of a product and simultaneously establish an intimacy and playful interactivity with the consumer, who controls and manipulates 3D objects while text, audio, Flash movies and other media types tell the story of a product or service," continued Vinberg.

ZoomView Unleashes the Potential of High-Resolution Photography

Where an "ordinary" Web page displays a low-resolution JPEG image, ZoomView enables streamed high-resolution images that users can "zoom" in on to view fine details. Zoom in very close to see all the features of an item on the Web, and pan the image, moving in all directions to inspect an image more closely. All the detail of a high resolution, print quality image is available, and it all works in a low bandwidth Web environment. All "ZoomView" features are integrated within the Viewpoint Media Player, enabling designers to composite hi-res photos and images with Flash content and state-of-the-art interactive 3D visualization capabilities.

-- Progressive, On-Demand Downloading: Viewpoint solves the bandwidth problem
associated with high resolution images on the Web, by downloading detailed
information on demand, as a user needs it. As a user zooms in to a hi-res
image, the Viewpoint Media Player fetches the parts of the image required to
display a crisp, highly detailed picture.

-- Scripted animations: With Zoom animation scripting, you can automatically
"guide" your viewers to close-ups of your featured products. Select which parts
of your image are most important and emphasize them with scripting options

-- Composite with Flash: ZoomView can be flawlessly composited with Flash
functionality, enabling such benefits as close-up "catalog" views with
automatic animated text descriptions that pop up as a user pans across items
for sale.

-- No "extras" required: Unlike other similar technologies, ZoomView does not
require a separate server, or development platform. ZoomView images are easily
implemented and updated without extra equipment or learning curves.

-- Leverage existing content: Any company that produces printed catalogs or
other material can repurpose those images now for the Web, keeping development
costs to a minimum. An online store, for example, may combine typical
low-resolution images with some "featured items" that are presented in high
detail for close inspection.

First-ever Compatibility with Flash and Interactive 3D in a Single Platform

The Viewpoint Media Player now plays the .swf files of the Macromedia Flash platform. These animations can contain vector graphics, images and text, and can even be used as textures on any 3D object in a Web page - a first for Flash-based developers. Viewpoint combines Flash features with other media types in a single platform, allowing developers to create dramatic interactive content.

-- Micro-mercials on the Web: Combine Flash movies with 3D

content, displaying logos, text, illustrations and visual

effects to create a highly informative moving image for the

highest impact yet for Web advertising.

-- Marquis-quality animations: Place Flash movies on the surface

of a 3D object, giving them dynamic behavior - a PDA can be

"switched on" with a screen displaying features for example,

or a message can be scrolled across a fully interactive 3D

automobile.

-- Combine Flash with other features: Combine Flash features with

hi-res photos and interactive 3D content to create

catalog-quality and information-rich Web pages with- all on a

single development platform.

-- Forget the Rectangle: As with all Viewpoint Media Player

components, Flash compatibility integrates well with HTML,