Pixologic announces ZBrush 3, a major update to its flagship product ZBrush, will be released on May 15, 2007. For the new version, Pixologic has boosted ZBrush's speed, refined its functionality as well as expanded its capability by adding a host of new features!

In ZBrush 3 you can expect to see real-time shadows, real-time material capture and render (MatCap), full 3D sculpting and texturing with alphas and textures, advanced ‘digital clay’ with up to one billion polygons using HD geometry, real-time posing with ZBrush's Transpose functionality, perspective camera, 2D / 2.5D /3D mesh projections, mesh retopologizing, topology/cavity/color based maskings, one-click turntable recording and Quicktime export, support for 32 and 64 bit systems, muti-threaded support for up to 256 processors, and more.

The Windows version will be released on May 15th; the release date for the Macintosh version will be announced following the release of the Windows version. The upgrade to version 3 will be free of charge to all registered users; including new users who will register before the next release.


Some of the key features of ZBrush 3 include:

Enhanced 3D Sculpting Tools
Now you can use your alphas, textures and strokes in the same way as your favorite ZBrush sculpting tools.

Poly Painting
Actions that were previously done in Projection Master can now be easily and quickly done in real-time in full 3D directly on the model’s polygons. No UVs required.

Mesh Projection
Transfer a high-resolution mesh from one model to another with completely different topology and edge flow.

Subtools
Each SubTool has its own texture, its own subdivision history and its own 3D layers.

Mesh Extraction
Transfer a high-resolution mesh from one model to another with completely different topology and edge flow.

3D Layers
Each SubTool has its own texture, its own subdivision history and its own 3D layers. Control your workflow by storing your sculpts in multiple 3D layers.

More
Transpose, perspective camera, 2D/2.5D/3D mesh projections, retopologizing, topology/cavity/color based maskings, one-click turntable recording and Quicktime export, support for 32 and 64 bit systems, muti-threaded support for up to 256 processors, and more.


http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/3/overview.php