Hot on the heels of the first Stykz Public Beta, STS today released the second version of the Public Beta of Stykz, the new stick figure animation program that is growing in popularity every day, many have called Stykz "the next Pivot" (referring to Pivot Stickfigure Animator, the dominant and most popular stick figure animation program for Windows that has not been upgraded since 2006). Beta 2 builds on the popularity of Beta 1 by adding a number of features including importation of Pivot 2 .stk files, exporting frames of the animation to a sequencve of images, the use of drag-and-drop to add figures to the Stykz Library palette, and more, including dozens of bug fixes in just the four short weeks since Beta 1 was announced.

For more information, visit the Stykz web site, or view the 1.0b2 Release Notes.

STS released the Public Beta of a new stick figure animation program called "Stykz". The released Public Beta is for Mac OS X, although Windows and Linux versions are planned, making Stykz the first multi-platform stick figure animation program developed. Animations are created frame by frame, and can be output to QuickTime or Animated GIF (although the Public Beta only supports QuickTime, animated GIF support will be available in the 1.0 release).

For more information, visit the Stykz web site.

STS released an upgrade to StackRunner today; version 1.9 now uses the Revolution 3.0 engine so it is fully comparable with the new features in Revolution 3.0.

For more information, visit the StackRunner web page.

Runtime Revolution (http://www.runrev.com/) recently announced that Revolution 3.0 was now available. In addition to a revised application icon, Rev 3.0 is a significant upgrade and includes:

• Enhanced menu accelerators (you can now add Shift, Option, Control, and F-keys as accelerators in addition to the Command key)
• Multi-dimensional arrays
• Arrays as "first class values" (meaning they can be passed around like normal variables)
• Gradients (linear, radial, conical, siral, diamond, xy, and sqrtxy) can be attached to graphic objects, and can be manipulated with code
• Can now add direct editing handles to a graphic for manipulating polygons, lines, and gradients
• Better rotation of objects
• A brand new Script Editor that uses tabs for each object being edited
• New Start Center and Resource Center
• Overhauled documentation
• Over 150 bug fixes and minor enhancements

Revolution 3 also has significantly reduced pricing! For example, you can get Revolution Enterprise for $499 (down from $999), and Revolution Studio for $249 (down from $399).

Read more about what's new in the 3.0 release at the Product Overview page at the Runtime Revolution web site.

STS released a new version of the XML Library, version 2.1. This version includes support for Linux, extended control over whitespace in XML, and enhanced documentation, in additional to a few minor bug fixes.

For more information, visit the XML Library web page.

STS released a new version of StackRunner today. Version 1.8 is built on Revolution 2.9 and provides Universal Binary, PowerPC Only, Intel Only, Windows, and Linux builds.

This version also includes all of the database drivers that come with Revolution Studio, so no additional installation of drivers is necessary - database support is "right out of the box".

Provided as an alternative to the Revolution Player, StackRunner provides no interface but is much more configurable than the Player provided by Runtime Revolution.

For more information, visit the StackRunner web page.

Runtime Revolution (http://www.runrev.com/) announced today that Revolution 2.9.0 was now available. Here's a few "bullet points" on the new build:

• Linux engine is now in parity with the Mac and Windows versions
• Mac OS engine is optimized for Leopard
• A complete clipboard overhaul
• A complete drag-and-drop overhaul, providing extended features like specifying a drag image, etc.
• "Do script" now can run Active Scripting (VBScript/JScript) on Windows
• Extensive printing support, including saving and restoring printer configurations, getting printer info, etc.
• Plus 500+ bug fixes and minor enhancements

Read more about what's new in the 2.8.1 release at the Overview page at the Runtime Revolution web site.