Silo 3D v2.0 [open beta]

[Tami]

Boston, MA -- Nevercenter Ltd. today announced the impending release of [url=\"http://www.nevercenter.com/\"]Silo 2.0[/url] as an open beta for [b]registered users[/b]. Silo is a focused 3D modeling application designed to fit into a wide variety of production pipelines, and has been adopted by artists in top studios around the globe. Version 2.0 introduces brush-based displacement painting fully integrated into a traditional modeling environment, LSCM UV unwrapping, and major improvements in the areas of interface, speed, workflow and toolset.

Silo 2.0 has undergone a year of intense development since its initial announcement during Siggraph last year. "We chose to rewrite Silo's core because we saw a unique opportunity to provide artists with a truly innovative toolset," said Tom Plewe, President of Nevercenter. "Displacement painting is a great way to add detail to existing models. Silo's displacement painting speed is competitive with other high-end displacement solutions, but has the added ability to let you cut and extrude and change your model while preserving existing displacement, so you can freely mix modeling tools with displacement tools."

UV unwrapping is a similar area of growth for Silo, with the popular LSCM algorithm offering relief from many of the headaches of traditional unwrapping. The focus for both the displacement painting and UV unwrapping implementations has been complete integration with Silo's core modeling capabilities. Nevercenter has also tweaked many of the existing modeling tools in Silo to work better in different contexts and with numerical input, and has completely rewritten the interface. Nearly every aspect of Silo has been improved or extended, with new inclusions such as a scene editor, sticky keys, and enhanced re-topologizing tools.

A Windows beta of Silo 2.0 will be released to all registered users in the coming weeks, with a Mac beta to follow. The final release will occur once it is deemed stable and production-ready by the users. Pricing for Silo 2.0 after the beta period will be $59US for upgrades from version 1.x and $159US for initial purchases. Anyone who purchases Silo 1.42 at its current price of $109 before the release of 2.0, including those who purchased on or after July 1st 2005, will receive a free upgrade to 2.0 as well as access to the beta. All future 2.x upgrades will be free to registered 2.0 users.

"We are one of what is presumably a very small group of companies whose customers regularly request a raise in price," remarked John Plewe, Director of Development for Nevercenter. "They are concerned about us sticking around as a company, and are concerned that the low price is hurting Silo's image as a professional modeling application. But what they can't see is that our business model is actually working very well for us. The $50 price increase for 2.0, with its core rewrite and major additions in the areas of UV unwrapping and displacement painting, is a continuation of that model."

More information on Silo and Nevercenter can be found at www.nevercenter.com.