SpeedTreeRT™ Licensed for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

MICROSOFT TO PUBLISH 3RD GENERATION MMORPG

COLUMBIA, SC – Citing SpeedTreeRT’s efficiency, ease of use and realism, Sigil Games Online has licensed real-time’s most popular foliage solution for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Vanguard, a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), will be published by Microsoft and is described by Sigil as a fantasy game with “a heavy focus on character development, an immersive world and player interdependence.”

Kevin McPherson, Senior Programmer for Sigil, said he was grateful for SpeedTreeRT’s ability to quicken creation of Vanguard’s vast world. “SpeedTree has allowed Sigil to populate the landscape with realistic moving flora in a timely and efficient manner,” Mr. McPherson said, adding that support from SpeedTree developer Interactive Data Visualization (IDV) has been crucial. “IDV’s support and willingness to go the extra mile for the developer has pleased Sigil greatly.”

Sigil President and CEO Brad McQuaid praised the operational impact of the SDK. “SpeedTree has saved us development time versus implementing a similar solution internally,” said Mr. McQuaid, who also serves as co-producer of Vanguard. “Integration into our code and art pipeline was rapid even given the complexity of our project.”

About Sigil Games Online – The goal of Sigil Games Online is to make Vanguard: Saga of Heroes the premier third generation massively multiplayer RPG. To meet the growing demand for a game that advances the multiplayer fantasy genre, Sigil is using the combined experience and creativity of its team to bring players a new and challenging feature set with deep, involving game content. Vanguard is prepared to lead the way in subscription based revenue games.

SpeedTreeRT delivers low-polygon, highly realistic trees and plants, with adjustable wind effects, seamless LOD transitions, and an included library of hundreds of tree models from more than 100 core species. SpeedTreeRT includes SpeedTreeCAD, a Windows application used to create and edit animated trees in real-time.

Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV), develops software products with a focus on realtime three dimensional applications for the game development, visual simulation, engineering visualization, and animation industries. IDV, a privately held corporation, was founded in 1999 in Columbia, South Carolina. For more information about IDV, visit www.idvinc.com.