Computer Graphics World

August 2009 29 Rendering n n n n Caustic Graphics acquired Splutterfish, developers of the well-regarded Brazil ren- derer, in order to understand how their customers might use rendering. It also gives them the ability to dig deep into the entrails of a software renderer and gives the Caustic developers a better understanding of how rendering software works and where the opportunities are for hardware optimiza- tion—pretty much the same reason Nvidia buys rendering technology. e company continues to sell the Brazil renderer, but Caustic is primarily interested in forging partnerships with all the com- panies providing rendering. e com- pany is maintaining that its hardware/ software combination can speed rendering by as much as 20 times the speeds currently achievable. As a matter of fact, the com- pany is a little concerned that it will have to convince potential partners that Caustic will not be a competitor with Brazil. is time, things really are different. ere's not much doubt about that. e ability to create high-quality renders faster is going to change the workflow in every business where computer graphics are in- volved. e ability to see what the finished product might look like as early as possible shortens time to market. e question for these companies is, when? Sometimes changing the model is easy; it's changing the person that is hard. In order to suc- ceed, each one of these companies is going to have to identify the people they want us- ing their software. ey're going to have to understand exactly what these people are doing for a living, what pressures they're working under, and how, specifically, they can take advantage of rendering without slowing down what they already do. e potential, though, is enormous: It's the Holy Grail, again. What will happen— and it will happen, because of the work be- ing done by these companies and a whole generation of technologists and scientists— is that artists will be able to see what they're imagining as they're working. at opens the door to more artists and more content, more designers, and better designs. And, when the world changes, it's going to look a lot better. n Kathleen Maher is a contributing editor to CGW, a senior analyst at Jon Peddie Research, a Tiburon, California-based consultancy specializing in graphics and multimedia, and editor in chief of JPR's "TechWatch." She can be reached at Kathleen@jonpeddie.com. Caustic Graphics promises to reduce the time it takes to create raytraced images, such as this game controller.

• Cover