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Considering that this magazine is called Game Developer, it would make my life as a reviewer much easier if Painter X (X as in Roman numeral for 10) were called something like "Texture Manufacturer X" or "Tile-based Flash Background Creator X," because then it would make an overt, apples-to-apples cost to benefit justification to video game developers everywhere.
But the package is called Painter X, so I'm sort of screwed.
Photoshop, the software choice of many game artists, sounds much more like "Texture Manufacture" than "Painter" does. However, for game professionals who actually paint as part of their work (concept artists, art directors, and many art leads) recent versions of Painter have more than justified the expense of purchasing this software, giving users valuable and unique brushes, the ability to duplicate various media types, and an intuitive color picker. Version X takes these strengths to a whole new level while adding more to boot.
Photo and Screen Painting
The most noteworthy aspects of Painter X for game artists are the Photo and Screen Painting utilities. During the production phase of most video games, there comes a time when somebody has to sit in his or her cubicle for extended periods of time to find and manipulate the images that become the backgrounds of innumerable user interface screens. Frequently, the images are screenshots from the game itself. Painter X now incorporates an Enhanced Photo-Painting System so the aforementioned screen grabbers can produce automated paint-overs of originals with more control and automated intelligence than before....