Cycling ’74 has announced the release of Jitter version 1.5, a major upgrade to its video, matrix and 3D graphics objects for the Max/MSP graphical programming environment.

Jitter is a set of 150 video, matrix, and 3D graphics objects for the Max graphical programming environment. The Jitter objects extend the functionality of MaxMSP with flexible means to generate and manipulate matrix data — any data that can be expressed in rows and columns, such as video and still images, 3D geometry, as well as text, spreadsheet data, particle systems, voxels, or audio. Jitter is useful to anyone interested in real-time video processing, custom effects, 2D/3D graphics, audio/visual interaction, data visualization, and analysis.

New Features in Jitter 1.5 include:

• A new architecture for GPU hardware acceleration, offering performance increase for rendering filters, textures and shaders – up to 10x faster than a CPU with the latest generation of graphics cards.
• Flexible network communication capable of sending and receiving images, video, 3D objects and compressed data streams.
• Real-time support for high definition video data and high dynamic range (HDR) images
• Computational dispatching for faster performance with multi-processor and multi-core systems.
• Extensions to the Java and JavaScript languages for control of Jitter objects and data.
• Improvements to Windows camera input/output, audio integration and product tutorials, and new support for the FreeFrame open source video plug-in format.
• Jitter provides an unprecedented level of modularity in graphics processing applications. Jitter supports digital video (DV) camera control as well as input and output via FireWire and provides multiple monitor support for performance situations. Jitter users can develop and share their own unique programs and algorithms, and create standalone visual applications just as they currently do with Max/MSP. A free Runtime version is available that runs any application created with Max/MSP and Jitter.

Price and availability:

Jitter 1.5 is now available from for both Mac OS X and Windows XP directly from Cycling 74’s website. Registered Jitter users can upgrade to Jitter 1.5 for $189. The MSRP for Jitter 1.5 is $395, and the Max/MSP/Jitter bundle is $850. Any customers who purchased Jitter after May 1, 2005 can receive the upgrade free of charge.