Apple Computer Inc’s Power Macintoshes look set to become the first personal computers with in-built three dimensional graphics. Apple has built a three-dimensional graphics application program interface, QuickDraw 3D, on top of its Mac OS operating system. QuickDraw 3D incorporates a high-level modelling toolkit and a device and acceleration manager for hardware acceleration. Power Macs with QuickDraw 3D are set to ship this summer with a Windows version to follow within six months. 3D Labs Inc, the three-dimensional processor manufacturer, says it will support QuickDraw 3D with its three dimensional 32-bit Glint chip. 3D Labs is touting Glint as the microprocessor equivalent of a high-end workstation graphics board that will speed up the rendering of images with QuickDraw. Yarc Systems Inc, Newbury Park, California says it will develop a mult-media authoring tool using the glint processor within Quickdraw 3D. EA Research Inc has announced a software upgrade to Apple’s QuickDraw 3D software. The Easycolor QuickDraw 3D Expert Module, a graphics accelerator board, will work with all applications incorporating Apple QuickDraw 3D. To run QuickDraw 3D, Power Macintosh systems will require Mac OS Version 7.1.2 or later and 16Mb of memory. Apple is also working on standard file format, 3D meta file, to enable three-dimensional objects to be cut and pasted across applications, which is due to arrive next month.
