|
| By Brad Cook Want to know how to step into your Mac and become a part of the games you love to play? Okay, you can’t literally step into the computer like a character from the movie TRON. But you can put your face into some of your favorite games, thanks to CyberX-3D, an amazing new technology from the company CyberExtruder. |
|
 Get a makeover — CyberExtruder style. |
Frag your friends in Return to Castle Wolfenstein with a character that looks just like you. Upload your best poker face in Colin’s Classic Cards and bluff your pals. Stick your face on your favorite Sims character and throw a house party or go on a hot date. You can even become Max Payne himself, once the game is released for the Mac this spring.
The possibilities are almost endless, and CyberExtruder is working hard to bring their technology to many more titles this year.
Magic of a Digital Kind
So how do you take advantage of this technology? Do you have to buy a special program and install it on your Mac?
Actually, you can get started right now. All you have to do is visit the CyberExtruder web site, create a free account, and upload an digital image of yourself (we bet you have plenty of those in your iPhoto library). You can preview up to six images for free. Take the plunge, and you can extrude your face into all the games that CyberX-3D supports for a small fee.
 |
||||
|
|
|
|
||
 |
||||
Using complex facial recognition technology,
CyberExtruder can realistically render 2D images into 3D.
“One gamer wrote to thank us because he was always being asked to create faces for his friends,” says Gardner. “It took him hours to do. Now he just sends them to CyberExtruder.”
Striking a Chord
When you decide to go for it, you’ll be joining the 22,000 people who extruded a little over 40,000 faces from last August through January, 2002. It looks like CyberExtruder is on to something.
This guy is Max Payne.
“We think we’ve struck a chord with people,” agrees Larry Gardner, CEO of CyberExtruder. “We’ve all watched television shows and movies and thought it would be great to see yourself and your friends. Just look how people react when a TV camera pans an audience.
“Seeing yourself and your friends in a videogame gives you the same feeling. ‘Hey, look, I’m on TV!’”
CyberX-3D’s ease of use is also a big part of the technology’s popularity. In the past, putting your face in a game required software that was difficult and time-consuming to use. Now you can do the same thing in just seconds.
The Sky’s the LimitCyberX-3D works with the Mac OS X versions of the games it’s currently compatible with, and Gardner wouldn’t have it any other way.
“With the new [iMac computers] and Mac OS X, the sky’s the limit [for Mac games],” he says. “The graphics and responsiveness [of the new OS] are outstanding.
“We’re betting that the new iMac will be a runaway success and that people will want more and more games for Mac OS X.”
And, of course, with more and more games will come more and more opportunities for you to extrude your face into your favorite titles. If you have suggestions for games you’d like to stick your face in, Gardner would love to hear from you.
 |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|||
 |
|||||
It wasn’t this easy back in the pre-CyberExtruder days. Learn more about how this technology came into being. 
|