Computer Graphics World

July 2009 43 tion of the way your local machine and the more powerful machines communicate with each other over an ethereal network to exchange highly compressed data. With this method, you can perform sophisti- cated computing tasks—analyze DNA se- quences, run particle physics simulations, and generate broadcast-quality movies, to name but a few—far beyond the capacity of your own computer's chipset. e method also offers economic bene- fits. Instead of purchasing a costly high-per- formance system, you call up the resources over a network when you need them, pay- ing only for the times you use them. On the other end, someone—usually a com- pany that has invested in considerable in- frastructure and storage capacity—delivers the computing horsepower you need on demand. Hence the term Software as a Service (SaaS). Cloud computing is nothing but an evolution of the old client/server para- digm, a transformation prompted by the ubiquitous presence of the Internet and the availability of high-bandwidth connec- tions. Many of us are already using cloud computing, though we may not call it so. If you're on Facebook or Twitter, if you've ever wandered inside the rolling terrain of Google Earth or World of Warcraft, you're already halfway in the cloud. For some digital content creators and industrial designers, the cloud is a promis- ing playground. Within the cloud's infinite confine, they can be much more creative and productive than they would be on their own local machines. For some engi- neers and project managers, the cloud is a viable substitute for on-premise IT sys- tems and databases. In this grim economy, where cutting operating costs is a common means of survival, the cloud's affordability makes it almost irresistible. Rendering as a Service In February 2007, surrounded by playful, imaginative, kid-friendly gadgets inside the Zeum eater at Yerba Buena Gardens (San Francisco), Autodesk's CEO Carl Bass pronounced a new motto: "Experience it before it's real." Under his stewardship, Autodesk began pursuing technological advancements that would let its customers see, feel, and understand their design proj- ects—from sustainable residential struc- tures in New Orleans to hybrid vehicles— before the first brick was laid or the first sheet metal was cut. In other words, the digital model created in Autodesk design software becomes a replica of the physical object that will be built. In July 2007, Scott Sheppard, a soft- ware engineer and Autodesk blogger ("It's Alive in the Lab"), introduced an applica- tion called Project Showroom. He gave the public a glimpse of an Autodesk technology that would let interior designers and their clients collaborate over the Web. rough a standard browser window, the designer could propose ideas about the configura- tion of the kitchen or the bathroom, using a fully rendered 3D scene to show what the furnished environment would be like. e drag-and-drop interface lets you grab a 3D object from the side panel pop- ulated with household items readily avail- able in the market: a Jenn-Air refrigerator with cabinet-depth French doors, a single- handle Delta faucet, and DuPont counter- tops are just a few of the content items in the catalog. Equipped with the 3D geometry of the room and the furniture, anyone could have produced a realistic rendering of what the layout would look like. So what's so special about Showroom? e answer is, in one word, speed. Because of its use of cloud computing, Project Showroom could de- liver the visual output faster than a stan- dard PC could, allowing you to reconfig- ure the room at will. Explaining the appeal of SaaS—the de- livery model for Project Showroom—Auto- desk developer Frederic Loranger wrote, "With tens of thousands of servers avail- able in server farms (for example, Ama- zon EC2), the idea of infinite computing power opens the doors to a wide range of complex mathematical problems and real- Project Showroom, an Autodesk technology currently in development, lets you create high-quality renderings, with little or no wait time, through a browser. Delivered in the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, the technology could conceivably be deployed to help interior designers, material suppliers, and clients hold discussions online. Visualization n n n n

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