Macromedia Inc. on Thursday announced the release of Macromedia Director MX 2004, the latest version of their popular multimedia authoring software for Mac OS X and Windows. The new version adds new features including support for JavaScript and Flash MX 2004, and much more. It can be downloaded today from the Macromedia Online Store.
Macromedia Director MX 2004 is used to develop multimedia content for deployment on CDs and DVDs, kiosks, the Internet and anywhere else. The software supports popular video, audio, bitmap, 3D and vector graphics formats.
In addition to JavaScript and support for Flash MX 2004, Macromedia Director MX 2004 now adds support for DVD-Video playback, so Director developers can incorporate DVD-Video playback into their presentations (QuickTime, Windows Media, RealMedia and Flash Video are also supported). Director MX 2004 can also be more easily used to create “projector” files for either Mac or Windows platforms.
As the name implies, this new release of the Director software integrates with other Macromedia MX products and offers similar workspace customization — Director users can now customize both the “stage” and the “movie-in-a-window” docks to their liking. It can launch and edit Flash and fireworks, and supports the Flash MX 2004 component architecture. In fact, Director MX 2004 includes a subset of the Flash MX 2004 components — Flash content can now be integrated directly within Director projects. Performance of Flash content working within Director projects has been “dramatically” improved, according to Macromedia.
With JavaScript support, Director developers have an alternative to Macromedia’s own Lingo scripting language; the two can be combined as well.
Available for download from the Macromedia Online Store now, Macromedia Director MX 2004 costs US$1,199 for a full license. Upgrades from Director 8.5 and Director MX costs $399. Director MX 2004 requires Mac OS X v10.2.6 or higher.
Macromedia plans to release localized versions of Director MX 2004 in French, German and Japanese this March.