Adobe have revealed that a new version of Director will be released in the first half of 2007. No new features have been confirmed, which suggests that the emphasis will be on bug fixing and platform compatibility.
It’s great to hear that Adobe have finally made a commitment to one of Macromedia’s most long-standing products. Director has been been overshadowed by Flash in recent years, but the application still has a number of uses, and it remains the most powerful solution for CD-ROM development and web-based 3D.
On that note, I’d like to see the Shockwave 3D engine updated: it hasn’t really changed at all since its launch around 5-6 years ago. Shockwave 3D is still arguably the best cross-platform solution for delivering interactive 3D content and games on the web, but if Adobe don’t update the feature set it’s likely to fall in popularity, particularly amongst the all-important development community.
Director stalwart and all-round Macromedia legend Tom Higgins gives more information on Director’s future in his interview at Digital Media Designer, confirming that the next release will offer native support for Intel Mac’s and Windows Vista.
