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To: Michael Feldstein who wrote (24845)	5/16/1999 10:49:00 PM
From: soup	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213177

WWDC Sessions: Day 3 xappeal.org At least skim.

To: Michael Feldstein who wrote (24845)	5/17/1999 3:41:00 PM
From: Doren	Respond to of 213177

It's a huge mystery to me that Pixar hasn't ported some of its software to the Mac. Perhaps it was Apple's hope that QT 3D would do better against OpenGL. Maybe it will port now that OpenGL has finally been adopted. It's obvious that it would help the Mac platform, and it seems like it would open doors for Pixar as well. Pixar owns RenderMan, which is the state of the art rendering program for 3D and used by most major movie special effects companies. If you saw "A Bugs Life" you might have noticed the subtle lighting effect around the mushrooms, created with Renderman. Pixar also owns other high end programs, most notably a new system for polygon based 3D. In the past spline based 3D modeling has been favored because splines bend realistically where polygons don't (such as an elbow). However it is hard to attach pieces of spline based models to each other. Pixars new polygon system bends and attaches well and promises to revolutionize 3D modeling. Its likely that they have numerous other secret software products they keep to themselves to gain advantage over companies such as Pacific Data Images (which also writes its own software). As for the sale, I think Jobs likes to have two companies.

To: Michael Feldstein who wrote (24845)	5/18/1999 9:38:00 PM
From: Adam Nash	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213177

Adam, regarding the wisdom of buying SGI's software business, what do you think about the possibility of Apple buying Pixar? Like SGI, Pixar offers real high-end digital software. It also has strong revenues and a serious hand in content production as well. Plus, it would resolve our iCEO's dilemma about what he wants to be when he grows up. While I think it is an interesting hypothetical, there isn't really a strong business case to merge the two. Their businesses are pretty orthogonal, that is to say they don't really overlap. Also, Pixar has largely deprecated their commercial software products, in order to focus on building the best tools internally and using them for competitive advantage. As for Steve, I wouldn't worry about that. In the end, it is inevitable that he will leave both Apple and Pixar. It's just a matter of time. Apple could pick up Pixar, tie it in w/QuickTime and FinalCut, and it off again. Is that a crazy idea? Sure, but not as crazy as many things I have heard or read about Apple. But, hey, these type of combinations and possibilities are what make the industry interesting, right?