Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/6960
February 2010 tens of seconds of rendering is revolutionary for many artists. New World of Rendering During the past 18 months, we have started to see products and prototypes that take ad- vantage of these new capabilities, and there is definitely more to come throughout 2010. For instance, days ago Mental Images re- leased Iray, the first interactive and physically correct photorealistic rendering solution. Us- ing a new path-tracing approach, Iray lever- ages the GPU to deliver physically accurate rendering with zero setup. It is a great example of a progressive renderer that delivers results in seconds, not minutes. Iray makes the render- ing process interactive by progressively refining an image until the desired detail is achieved, becoming increasingly faster as more GPUs are employed. is allows the play of light, shadow, and reflection to be studied, making interactive realism a reality. Shaderlight, new raytracing software from ArtVPS, allows interactive changes to be made to fully rendered images. Shaderlight renders intelligent pixels that understand where they fit in a 3D image. When changes are made to materials, environments, lights, or textures, the information embedded in each pixel is used to update the image without the need to re-render. ArtVPS calls these MELT changes. Chaos Group recently released V-ray RT for 3ds Max, which provides quick previews of images. Performing the actual rendering out- side of 3ds Max, V-Ray RT follows the user's actions while working on the scene and pro- gressively generates a photorealistic preview of the scene. Even more impressive, the company has also demonstrated a research effort using the GPU to generate anywhere from a 10x to 20x speed improvement over the CPU ver- sion. It is expected that this product will soon reach its final development stage. Similarly, Caustic Graphics showed Brazil RT integrated with 3ds Max and running in a n interactive mode with the firm's Caustic- One hardware rendering accelerator at SIG- GRAPH 2009. e firm claims that its next iteration of the chip will be 10 to 12 times faster than its already interactive results. Finally, Autodesk is exploring these new computing trends with a solution called Showcase, which offers both interactive GPU- based visualization and a near seamless transi- tion to CPU-based raytracing when quality is needed. Manufacturers use Showcase to evalu- ate styling and functionality of their CAD de- signs. Autodesk, along with other companies, believe that these new approaches to produc- ing photoreal images will open up a larger op- portunity, as quality and capabilities improve to address additional requirements outside of CAD visualization. Imagine the Possibilities As is often true with new technology innova- tions, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. e Rendering Revolution is just under way, and as with any disruptive event, it is dif- ficult to predict exactly what new visions it will enable. I'm sure that artists, engineers, and de- signers will welcome the creative freedom that is enabled by iterating in such an expressive fashion. is could lead the shift from using static images, to project ideas, to using anima- tions and fully interactive experiences. With game-quality graphics closing in on film-quality graphics, the use of GPUs and interactive rendering techniques to produce finished frames for TV episodics and archi- tectural visualizations is growing. Given the enormous time and cost pressures associated with creating animated content for TV, the ability to render a 30-second shot in 30 sec- onds versus 30 hours has significant competi- tive implications. We can only imagine the sea changes that the Rendering Revolution will bring. Only one thing is definite: e cost of pixels is about to get very cheap. n ArtVPS's Shaderlight raytracer enables artists to interactively make changes to fully rendered images, such as this car model. We support your creativity. DOSCHDESIGN.COM 0 5 2 5 7 5 9 5 1 0 0 A d v e r t i s e m e n t - C G W - D e c