Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/147928
K5000 Visualizer for Maya replaying the OpenGL code used to display objects in various applications, such as Autodesk's Maya, PTC's Pro E, and Dassault's Catia, the test gives a fairly accurate assessment of the card's performance. The results were very good: We didn't you haven't wasted any time attempting to optimize your scene for Visualizer: You can simply change your production renderer selection and continue working. It's very much a WYSIWYG experience, with the choice of outputting exactly what you see in the hardware-accelerated viewport and utilizing the speed of Visualizer, or taking advantage of unique Mental Ray features where needed. It's not entirely unicorns and lollipops, though. Visualizer's v1.0 immaturity is evident in its omission of a few features, which are now a given even for most GPU renderers, such as per-pixel displacement and instancing (instancing is mostly made up for by the R2500's 16gb of memory, which can hold up to 120 million polygons). Overall, Caustic Visualizer is painfully close to being an extremely disruptive force in the renderfarm space. Visualizer is a difficult product to review because it doesn't really fit into any of the normal holes that you would try to judge a renderer by. Its closest comparison would be Viewport 2.0, which ships with Maya. Compared to Viewport 2.0, Visualizer offers unparalleled fidelity and photorealism – and excellent performance. On the other hand, in spite of its currently limited capabilities, it's impossible to not compare it to a GPU IPR renderer such as V-Ray RT. For look development, compared to V-Ray RT, Visual- catia-03___________________ 47.54 ensight-04 ________________ 57.91 lightwave-01 ______________ 45.08 maya-03 __________________ 57.31 proe-05 ___________________ 12.64 sw-02 ____________________ 40.93 tcvis-02 ___________________ 52.81 snx-01 ____________________ 46.38 have another card to test against this one, but the published results on the Viewperf 11 website indicate that the K5000 seems to be closer to the Quadro 6000 in terms of performance. We also ran a few more tests for the card. Maxon's Cinebench test gave us an OpenGL score of 86.40 fps. The SPEC 3ds Max 2011 test reported a composite score of 37.21. Again, these are very good numbers; the card is a solid performer. In terms of application performance, the card comes with special drivers for Autodesk 3ds Max to help speed up DirectX performance. Adobe applications, such as Premiere, Photoshop, and After Effects, can also utilize the power of the card to speed up the rendering of complex scenes and previews. Unfortunately, the card released after CS6 came out, so you have to add the card to Adobe's internal configuration files. Once that happens, the card will be recognized. For complex tasks, like compositing, the card shows a huge increase in speed, often accelerating render times by a factor of five to eight and more. Overall, this is a great card. It offers a lot of power and performance in a very powerefficient package. As for most high-end cards, there is a bit of a price premium, but the additional productivity should offset that for the kinds of professionals who use this card. For those who have a serious need for graphics power, this is a quality card that will serve you well. ■ CGW George Maestri is a contributing editor for CGW and president/CEO of RubberBug animation studio. He also teaches Maya for Lynda.com. He can be reached at maestri@rubberbug.com. izer offers better support for complex shaders, sports accurate Mental Ray emulation, and is considerably more interactive and responsive, but it currently lacks some critical production renderer features, such as 3D motion blur and instances. What it lacks in features, Visualizer (especially when paired with a Series 2 RTU) delivers performance and capability in spades. If you mostly use Mental Ray or Maya lights and materials, Visualizer is an amazing product. If, however, you depend on thirdparty lights and materials, Visualizer's value is limited, unless you are willing to accept the aforementioned feature limitations for final frame rendering. With expanded support for other renderers, Visualizer could be a must-have plug-in for every Maya user. As it stands now, though, V-Ray and Pixar RenderMan users should keep an eye on Visualizer's future updates before jumping into the OpenRL ecosystem. ■ CGW Gavin Greenwalt is a VFX supervisor and senior artist for Straightface Studios in Seattle. He can be reached at Gavin@SFStudios.com. Article: Go to "Extras" in the July/August 2013 issue box for a related story and a review of the Caustic R2500 and R2100 cards. Vue 11.5 xStream and objects. Brushes can paint single items or a combination of them. This method uses a much more efficient way of creating and rendering the objects, making scenes easier to navigate. Splines can also be used to place plants and other types of objects. The software supports animation and physical effects, so you can create forces, (gentle breeze or wind), as well as bring bodies of water to life. Particle systems, such as rain and snow, can also be created using EcoParticles. New in v11.5 is the ability for these particle systems to interact with other objects in the scene. Animation of individual objects, such as cameras, can also be done. The keyframing options are fairly simple, so complex animations should probably be done in other packages. As for other packages, the software does have plug-ins to allow scenes to be loaded and manipulated in most of the major packages. These packages can also render alongside Vue's renderer. Maya and 3ds Max users can also use Chaos Group's V-Ray and Mental Images' Mental Ray to render. Overall, Vue is an excellent way to create realistic environments. No other package has quite the range of features and ability to create realistic renders. It is definitely the choice for professionals wanting high-quality environments. ■ CGW George Maestri is a contributing editor for CGW and president/CEO of RubberBug animation studio. He also teaches Maya for Lynda.com. He can be reached at maestri@rubberbug.com. CG W July / August 2013 ■ 63