KEY POINTS:
Microsoft sent out an embargoed release this morning announcing the fact it has licensed some of its "graphics technologies" to Weta Digital, Peter Jackson's visual effects house.
What has Microsoft got that Weta hasn't? Well, it's hard to tell because Microsoft can't divulge what technology Weta has taken a shine to.
"Because of Weta's confidentiality and competitive interests, we are not publicly discussing the specific technologies Weta is licensing. However, these technologies are in the public domain and are available to anyone in the industry interested in licensing them," a Microsoft spokesman said.
Microsoft has always had a strong interest in graphics but that has really accelerated in recent years, especially as web applications incorporate richer functionality. Its Direct X technolgy is making new games look pretty good and with Silverlight it has aspirations to grab a share of the market dominated by Adobe Flash.
Microsoft already has a collaboration in place with Jackson on game development for the Xbox 360. So what has Microsoft search been working on that could contribute to the next Weta computer-generated epic?
"Last year, Microsoft showed us some new research in computer graphics that we thought would be a great addition to our toolkit," said Joe Letteri, senior visual effects supervisor at Weta Digital.
"We realised that by working directly with Microsoft Research, we could develop these ideas faster and spend more time on the creative effects."
Nothing specific there, but Microsoft is crowing as this is the first licensing deal of its kind for its graphics technology. Microsoft's intellectual property website has plenty of stuff in the graphics space in areas like Automatic Photo Cropping, merging 3D meshes, simulated weather effects, simulated rivers, and video stabilisation.
http://research.microsoft.com/news/featurestories/publish/SIGGRAPH_2007.aspx.
Something obviously caught Weta's attention, the question is what?
