Ubi Soft's upcoming titles will undoubtedly become intriguing gaming experiences in themselves but also visually breathtaking as well. Masterfully combining the two is certainly partly due to their huge success and is why Ubi Soft chose Bionatics' natFX for 3ds max to help carry the visual torch for two of their gaming projects, a daunting task that Ubi Soft's Senior Producer Catherine ROY is confident in.

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"With natFX, you can model a realistic tree very quickly keeping a high level of artistic flexibility. The person doesn't need to model the tree by hand. You can have a low to high range level of detail or just several faces crossing each still giving a 3D impression. We like the fact that there is a huge tree library with very realistic models. But mainly, the first thing we liked was that it's automatic. natFX will save us a lot of time on the project," said C. Roy.

"Convincing Ubi Soft to use natFX for was a real challenge for Bionatics," said Stéphane GOURGOUT, Bionatics Co-Founder and Sales Director. "Specific developments have been done to suit the needs of the team. natFX's rapidity and seamless integration into 3ds max now makes it a perfect tool for Ubi Soft and the most powerful plant simulation tool on the market". The hybrid technology is a computer-generated combination of billboards that delivers 3D realistic models with a minimum of polygon count.

According to Jean Sébastien MORIN, Modeling Studio Director, Ubi Soft has chosen an innovative solution. "Compared to traditional tree modeling methods, natFX saves about 1200% on production time. The progress offered is comparable to motion capture in the animation domain. Artists now possess a solution that is as efficient as it is complete for integrating realistic plants into games with the possibility of quickly modifying and tweaking the models whenever the art director asks for a change."

Bionatics will continue to develop its innovations in the domain and reinforce its position in the video game development market.

Commercialization
natFX comes with a 10-plant library. To enrich the library, the user can simply purchase choice plants on-line from Bionatics’ web site : www.bionatics.com . As of today, the site has over 500 different plants and trees from around the world.

Advised Minimum Configuration: Computers running 3ds max 4.x
- Pentium II processor 500 MHz
- 256 Mo RAM
- 3-button mouse with mouse driver software
- Windows NT 4.0, Service Pack 5,
- Windows® 2000 Professional

Price :
natFX = from $990 US to $6 000 US (from 10 to 200 plants of your choice)
Extra plants = $100 US (additional plants can be purchased and downloaded from the website)

About BIONATICS
Created in 1995 by Mathias Monribot and Stephane Gourgout, BIONATICS saw itself drawn in March 2000 towards the industrialization and worldwide commercialization of AMAP plant growth simulation software inspired by the extensive research by CIRAD. The AMAP technology, known throughout the international scientific community, is the software’s backbone.

References
Within 1 year, BIONATICS has got numerous operational references in the 3D animation & video game industry such as Sony Picture Imageworks, Ex Machina, DUBOI, UBISOFT, MIKROS Image, PIVOTAL Game, L’Autre Image, BBC, UBIK Visual Effects, Placebo Effects, SLAVE Studios and The MILL.