In addition to shipping Director MX 2004 on Thursday, Macromedia made a trial version available for download. The demo of this cross-platform multimedia content and application development tool is fully functional but expires after 30 days.
Director MX 2004 is the latest version of an application that’s 20 years old (it was known as VideoWorks from 1984 to 1988). It allows you to author content once and then publish for Mac and/or Windows on multiple media, including DVDs, CDs, kiosks, the Internet, or an intranet. It supports all the standard audio, video, 3D, bitmap, and vector graphics formats and can be used to create anything from a game to an interactive presentation. It’s so ubiquitous among developers that Macromedia notes that Director was responsible for 70 percent of the content found on interactive CD-ROMs in the mid-1990s.
If you’re interested in an in-depth discussion of the new features in Director MX 2004, Macromedia utilized another new application, Breeze, to put together an overview hosted by product manager Miriam Geller. The tour introduces novices to Director and explains its new features, such as support for DVD-Video, integration with Flash MX 2004, and the addition of a new scripting language, JavaScript Syntax, that can be used in tandem with Macromedia’s own Lingo scripting language.
When you’re ready to buy, Director MX 2004 will cost you US$1,199, either as a download or as a boxed product. The upgrade from an earlier version is $399. System requirements call for a PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 running at 500MHz or faster, Mac OS X v.10.2.6 (Jaguar) or higher, 128MB of available system RAM (256MB recommended), and 200MB of free hard drive space.