I know, I know, it’s been posted all around the world… still important enough for me to post it again:

Eclipse 3.1 has been released and comes with these improvements.

If you’re using a 3.0 release you can simply upgrade. Just make sure to set the following in Window - Preferences - Install/Update:

Valid updates: set to “compatible”

In Automatic Update, check “Automatically find new updates and notify me” and set the rest to your likings…

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to test it yet because their server seems a little overwhelmed by the huge interest…

Last weekend I saw the opening of this years Rohkunstbau exhibition just outside Berlin, where massive-single-user-isolation-fighting //////////fur//// (creators of the infamous PainStation) introduced their latest project Mr. Punch. Disguised as a Punch and Judy Show, Mr. Punch emerges as a crossover between an early automata from the 30ties and a modern videogame.

I very much enjoyed the whole Rohkunstbau exhibition and recommend it to anyone staying in and around Berlin! It’ll be showing until August 28th.

You can also see (and feel) the PainStation at etoy’s Berlin Operation and in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.

Surfing through the ActionScript projects listed at SourceForge, I found a very interesting library for simulating 2D physics in Flash using Verlet integration, developed by Alec Cove. It currently features particles, stick & angular constraints, wheels, and surfaces composed of line segments.

Click here to see the engine in action.

Less Rain is currently working on an online art project that involves browsing a large collection of videos / images in a 3-dimensional space.

We have been concentrating on concepts / drafts and we now need an experienced Shockwave 3-D programmer to join the team and create a prototype. Timelines are very tight and we will need to have something draft working by July 11, but we have applied for funding and the possibilities for the future are very good.

We already have £1000 that will go towards building this prototype, please mail vassilios@lessrain.com if you are interested. Ideally, we would like to find someone that lives in London, so we can meet up physically.

Hasbro is doing a nice promotion for Monopoly:

18 London black cabs have been fitted with GPS, and their position is translated onto an online Monopoly board. You can choose one of the cabs, “buy” some property (such as Wimbledon or the London Eye) - and then sit back and hope your cab doesn’t end up on other peoples hotels: MonopolyLive.

I have added a new page to the blog titled Director resources with a big list of Director and Shockwave 3D resources links.

Since FLash is leading the Industry, Director is not getting enough attention, but I’m still considering it as a very powerful tool.

This is probably one of the most impressive and longest demo ever done in Shockwave. (You will need the shockwave plug-in)

Worth to take a look the latest Shockwave pieces of Andreas Gysin. My favourites are Sky and f/a - 18. (You will need the shockwave plug-in)

A good collection of flash games at teagames.com.

CircusMuseum is a fantastic circus poster repository with almost 8000 pictures from the period 1880 - 1930.

Don’t miss the freaks section.

A few months ago, Thomas introduced me to Charles, a fantastic shareware application especially useful for Macromedia Flash developers as you can view the contents of LoadVariables, LoadMovie and XML loads.

After years of relative humbleness the Less Rain Empire is finally blossoming, and we all sat down to get our portraits painted in oil. Reproductions of the valuable art works can be gazed at in the team section.

Lessrain London
Lessrain Berlin
Lessrain Wien