Allegorithmic announced MaPZone 2.6, the newest version of its professional texturing software. Boasting several new and improved workflow and usability features, MaPZone 2.6 is the industry’s most advanced texturing tool dedicated specifically to creating professional, high-quality bitmap textures. Based on a revolutionary procedural approach, MaPZone gives artists unprecedented control when creating textures for animation, game, visual effects, online media, design and architectural visualization projects. MaPZone 2.6 is free and is scheduled to ship in fall 2007.

"The freeware version of MaPZone allows all artists to benefit from a powerful production-proven tool that is designed to help simplify the day-to-day task of creating and editing textures," said Dr. Sebastien Deguy, president and founder of Allegorithmic. "Offering the software for free has also fostered the growth of our MaPZone user community which has grown to more that 25,000 people since the release of MaPZone 2.5. With MaPZone 2.6 we hope to see that number increase as the user community continues to expand and share resources."


MaPZone is an authoring tool designed specifically for editing and managing textures. Based on Allegorithmic’s patented FXMaps technology, MaPZone is the only tool that allows users to locally edit procedural textures to create diffuse, specular and normal maps that are resolution independent, match up perfectly and seamlessly tile automatically.

Some of MaPZone 2.6’s new and improved features include:

• New bitmap image input node (similar to existing SVG input node) allows users to mix bitmaps and procedural noises making it easier to add details and matter to texture creations.
• New feature automatically flags normal maps for usage in DirectX or OpenGL.
• New functionality allows nodes of the graph to be realigned horizontally or vertically; existing connections between nodes in the graph can be modified by simple drag and drop.
• Reposition camera and object in 3DEdit panel to their default positions.
• Quicker access to Filter Menu by hitting [SPACE] key.

Industry Praise for MaPZone

"No other procedural texture editor gives artists the flexibility of MaPZone," said Vincent Brisebois, animation and visual effects product specialist at Autodesk.

"After downloading MaPZone for free and doing two tutorials, I am creating textures faster than ever before," said Stephan Aelmore, 3D artist. "I love the feel of the software - it’s extremely easy to use and produces very realistic results. I feel like I’ve been using it for years."

"I really enjoy working with MaPZone - it has all the key features necessary to make any high-quality textures," said Patrick Nieborg, technical artist at www.Kerkythea.net.

Pricing and Availability

MaPZone 2.6 is free and is scheduled to be released in fall 2007.

To download the current version of MaPZone visit www.mapzoneeditor.com