  We study the thermodynamic properties of infinite nuclear matter with the
Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (URQMD), a semiclassical transport
model, running in a box with periodic boundary conditions. It appears that the
energy density rises faster than $T^4$ at high temperatures of $T\approx
200-300$~MeV. This indicates an increase in the number of degrees of freedom.
Moreover, We have calculated direct photon production in Pb+Pb collisions at
160~GeV/u within this model. The direct photon slope from the microscopic
calculation equals that from a hydrodynamical calculation without a phase
transition in the equation of state of the photon source.
