Bristol, Avon-based virtual reality software supplier Division Group Plc has seen an impressive take-up of its software in the engineering sector in particular, and attributes increased losses at the half year stage to heavy investment in research and development and sales and marketing. The company reported interim losses up to ú1.6m against an ú890,000 loss last year on turnover up 17.1% to ú2.5m. It has recently released upgraded versions of its dVS run time system and dVise virtual authoring system, and says a Windows version will be available by the end of the year. The company is also continuing investment in Pixel-Flow, the next generation of the Pixel-Planes graphics subsystem licensed by Division from the University of North Carolina. Pixel-Planes will run on Hewlett-Packard Co’s Series 700 machines, as part of a strategic alliance signed by the two companies to develop offerings for virtual reality applications in computer-aided design, training and medicine. On the sales and marketing front, Division is setting up small sales and technical support offices throughout the US, concentrating on areas where its software is in particular demand. It has opened an office in San Diego, where there is a considerable military presence, having recently sold systems to the US army for weapons testing (CI No 2,270), and another in Detroit, where the automotive industry is another significant customer. In both of these markets, Division software takes computer-aided design models as a feed to its virtual reality software. The company said that its increasing involvment in computer-aided design projects is leading it in to long term, non-volatile business relationships.
