Rendering
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NVIDIA's RTX Studio driver speeds up ray-traced V-Ray rendering
When you see a particularly shiny, photorealistic 3D scene, there's a good chance it was created on Autodesk's 3DS Max or Maya using Chaos Group's V-Ray renderer. It can take a long time for workstations to crunch through V-Ray scenes, however, so NVIDIA has just unveiled an instant speedup. If you have an NVIDIA GeForce RTX or Quadro RTX card, the latest Studio driver will speed up V-Ray GPU renders by 40 percent on average, NVIDIA announced.
Final Cut Pro X gets a speed boost through Apple's Metal
The latest Final Cut Pro X update, released today, takes advantage of Apple's Metal API to provide leaps in performance. With a new Metal-based engine, the updated Final Cut Pro X improves playback and accelerates tasks like rendering, real-time effects and exporting on Metal-compatible Macs. According to Apple, the changes will make video editing 20 percent faster on the 15-inch MacBook Pro and 35 percent faster on the iMac Pro.
Kickstarter warns creators against calling projects 'the world's best'
Kickstarter is asking its users to tone down the hyperbolic language and to layoff the misleading imagery. In an attempt to promote transparency, the now 10-year-old platform issued new rules and guidelines aimed at "honest and clear presentation."
Disney Research has a faster way to render realistic fabrics
Computer graphics have come a long way, but there are still a few aspects that are pretty time consuming to get right. Realistic fabric movement that reacts to gravity and other forces is one of 'em and the folks at Disney Research have found a way to make life-like cloth simulations by six to eight times in certain situations. Walt's science department says that using a technique called multigrid, specifically, smoothed aggregation allowed it to make clothing worn by a main character or fabrics that make up the foreground of a scene at a much faster clip. There's an awful lot of science and equations behind the concept (PDF), but the long and short of it is that this should allow for more realistic cloth simulations that stretch and act like fabric does in the real world and even aid in virtual try-on situations.
CCP dev blog talks PBR and 'making EVE look real'
Have you ever wondered about the math behind the visuals in your favorite games? If so, look no further than the latest EVE Online dev blog, which regales us with tales of the Phong Reflection Model and how it's giving way to something called Physically Based Rendering or PBR. The post features a bunch of equations, literally, and plenty of associated smart-person talk. Fortunately for me it also features quite a few pretty pics of internet spaceships! You can read it for yourself via the links below.
Disney Research crafts a more realistic way to capture the human eye
We're keen on checking in with the folks at Disney Research from time to time to see what crazy projects its been working on. At SIGGRAPH Asia this week, the outfit is presenting recent work in crafting more detailed 3D-rendered eyes. In order to properly capture all the details needed to make things appear realistic for things like character generation, the studio has crafted a method for nabbing those intricacies based not only on appearance, but taking into account how the eye responds to light, too. "Generically modeled eyes may be sufficient for background characters, but it now takes significant effort to manually create realistic eyes for heroes and other leading characters," says Disney Research Zurich's Pascal Bérard. The project is nothing new for Disney's experimental arm, as the folks there have been looking into a method for more detailed ocular representation for quite some time. The method not only cuts down on the work required to manually produce believable results, but the tech could also drastically improve modeling in ophthalmology as well.
Elite: Dangerous releases commentary on the most recent trailer
We live in a suspicious time for game trailers. You see a great trailer and your first thoughts aren't about how great the game look but about whether or not it was all just pre-rendered. Worry not, Elite: Dangerous fans: the recent trailer showing off an epic space battle was almost entirely rendered in the game engine. A new follow-up walks through the video and explains what was already in place, what was added specifically for the trailer, and how the video as a whole helped the design team. While almost everything rendered in the trailer was generated in the game engine, the ships involved were all flying along pre-determined paths. This might not sound like a big deal until you realize that it allowed the art team to examine everything from multiple angles, making sure that things looked right from various paths without having to manually test each element. But don't take our word for it, just check out the companion trailer past the break and find out about it yourself. [Thanks to Peteris for the tip!]
Google's Blink team pulls 8.8 million lines of WebKit code in one month
Google let us all know that it would strip out unneeded WebKit code to make its Blink web engine scream, but it never said exactly what kind of pace we could expect. The answer, it turns out, is "breakneck." The company's Alex Komoroske told Google I/O attendees that the Open Web Platform team has already yanked 8.8 million lines of programming from Blink in about a month, with 4.5 million of them scrubbed almost immediately. Removing so much cruft has reportedly improved not just the upcoming engine, but the engineers -- they're far more productive, Komoroske says. The team has already had time to explore new rendering techniques and garner code contribution requests from the likes of Adobe, Intel and even Microsoft. Although we don't yet know if all the trimming will be noticeable to end users by the time Blink reaches polished Chrome and Chrome OS releases, it's safe to say that some developers won't recognize what they see.
Camelot Unchained discusses the trouble with rendering engines
It's been said multiple times by the Camelot Unchained team that this game is meant to be large. The focus is on large-scale sieges, not a couple of guys banging on the front door of a castle. That means the game needs to be able to handle a huge number of players on the screen at any one time. How do you find an engine that can handle that? According to the latest update on Kickstarter, you build one. While the engine isn't built entirely from scratch, it isn't based off of an established engine, simply because it's being custom-built to handle the game's specific needs. The attached video allows you to see the engine in action, scaling from a handful of characters up to the moving mob pictured in the header. If you want to know more about what makes the game pretty to look at, this will be very relevant to your interests.
It's the end of culling as we know it in Guild Wars 2 WvW
Have you noticed anything missing when participating in Guild Wars 2's world-vs.-world battles -- a little something like, say, enemies? That would be culling. In order to limit bandwidth and reduce client-side system requirements, ArenaNet instituted this process which limited how many characters would render on players' screens. However, a side-effect for those who entered WvW in large groups was that many enemies couldn't be seen even at close range. To end this invisible enemy phenomenon, culling is being culled from WvW. In place of that system, ArenaNet is offering new options to customize how characters will be rendered on the battlefield. Players can choose exactly how many characters will be rendered in each of the following ways: as high resolution models, as low resolution models, and as just nameplates. These changes will be implemented in the March 26th patch. [Thanks to Drew for the tip!]
Daily iPhone App: PyroPainter is special FX made easy on the iPhone
There's been an explosion of special effects videos on YouTube over the past few years. Because the technology to create special effects has gotten so cheap and so easy to use, basement video editors of all kinds have put together videos of themselves throwing fireballs or fighting with lightsabers against their cats. PyroPainter takes this idea to an even easier place: It's an iPhone app that lets you add special effects to videos as simple as dragging and dropping them across the screen. The app's instructions are unfortunately a little sparse, but once you figure out how it all works, it's really simple. You upload one of your previously recorded videos into the app, choose an effect from the huge library and "paint" it across the screen with your finger. Anything you add gets added to the video, and you can then go back and watch the video while dragging or deleting the effects as you like. Once done, the video gets rendered right there in the app, and sent back to your video library, in full HD form, where you can send it off to YouTube or watch it on AirPlay. It's very impressive. There are already a few demo videos on YouTube, but I hope to see even more cool demos put together by users in the future. PyroPainter is a free download, and there are two packs of special effects to buy for 99 cents each with more to come. Developer Markus Nigrin has also released a second app available for free to celebrate the launch of PyroPainter: Photo Extractor is something he came up with during development of the effects app. It will allow you to grab HD photos from any video on the iPhone, and then save those off to the photo reel on their own. It's a much simpler function than the full effects app, but it could be very helpful for that specific need.
Dell Precision R5500 lets four graphics pros work on one PC, we wish it did gaming
Workstations aren't normally our focus, but when Dell shows off a new Precision system that lets four media pros share its graphics hardware at once, you can be sure the company has our attention. If your IT chief springs for a Precision R5500 with four Quadro 2000 cards, each of those cards can take advantage of a graphics pass-through in Citrix's virtualization to render 3D models at speeds much more like what you'd get if the Quadro were sitting in your own PC. Before you have visions of four-player Modern Warfare parties after-hours at work, the inherent barriers of distance and the virtual machine itself will likely rule out any game sessions.
Nintendo brings Mobiclip on board to help with Wii U development
Nintendo beefed up its proprietary arsenal yesterday, with the acquisition of Mobiclip -- a Paris-based video codec provider. As Gamasutra reports, the deal was actually finalized back in October, but only became public this week, when Mobiclip confirmed its new ownership on its website. The company already has a history with Nintendo, having lent a hand with video rendering and playback on the DS and Game Boy Advance. Now that it's officially under its wing, Mobiclip will reportedly collaborate with Nintendo on its forthcoming Wii U, as suggested by a recently posted job listing for a "console software engineer."
BlackBerry London resurfaces in leak, sports matte black exterior, nonexistent OS
That salacious onyx number up there? Per CrackBerry, it's a rendering of RIM's upcoming BlackBerry codenamed London. Found lurking in a leaked Waterloo slidedeck, the svelte render now sports a more curvaceous and onyx exterior -- a departure from the angular metallic P'9981-esque dummy-unit first spied back in November. Those tweaks validate another rumor, which foretold the redo, as-well as the killing of its Milan and Colt siblings. Looks like RIM might be putting all of its eggs into this redesigned London-basket, which per this leaked roadmap could be yours come Q3. All or nothing, Thorsten Heins? We like your gusto -- bring on the black unicorn.
Shoot Many Robots gets M rating, peek behind the developer's curtain
Demiurge's still dateless Shoot Many Robots may be closer to release than it seems, as the Metal Slug-esque shooter has been granted an "M" rating by the ESRB for sexual themes, strong language and the use of alcohol. Now, we're not going to put the onus of that rating squarely upon the shoulders of a certain fruit-fetishist robot, but all of those things do sound right in his wheelhouse. The rating was revealed by the above trailer, which details the game's rendering engine and the various effects that can be achieved by removing certain layers of the game's visuals. While developed primarily for debugging purposes, some of these effects may make it into the finished product as bonus levels or unlockables. Personally, we're keeping our fingers crossed for the Lighting Mode shown at 02:11 and the "Limbo mode" at 02:32.
TerraRay for Mac doubles rendering speed and drops price for 1 week
I've enjoyed using TerraRay for some months. It's in the tradition of terrain creation apps like Bryce, but at a much lower price. I don't think it is quite as photo realistic as some other 3D landscape programs, but it is continuously upgrading features and quality. TerraRay 6 is just out, and rendering speeds have been increased by 25 to 50%. This latest version can use 64 bit processors to speed up processing. Even better, the US $19.99 Mac app is available through the app store for $9.99 through December 7. It's a fraction of the cost of other similar programs. I've tried the latest version and can confirm the speed increases. This new version also improves rendering of clouds, grass, rocks and adds some post processing effects to make your creations even more realistic. I find TerraRay to be a good starter to mid-range renderer. If you were thinking of picking it up, this sale is even further incentive. Check the gallery below for some samples. %Gallery-140949%
Daily iPad App: Quaternion Julia Raytracer HD
Of the many things I expected my iPad to do, ray tracing was not one of them. The ability to make realistic looking objects with accurate reflections was originally the domain of high end workstations, but over the years it has migrated down to laptop and desktop class computers. Now the programmers at Angisoft in Germany have a pretty impressive ray trace app for the iPad. Called, appropriately, Quaternion Julia Raytracer HD, it renders quaternion julia fractals at a reasonably fast clip, and supplies some background images that can provide the reflections on the surface of the 3d object. What you get is a kind of modern sculpture that can be seen from any angle, and with onscreen settings, you can modify the shape all you want. Of course each change requires another rendering pass, but it only takes a few seconds. The app also allows you to render in anaglyphic 3D and the image looks great with red/blue glasses if you have some around. The renderings you produce would make a great iPad desktop or lock screen. The app was stable throughout my testing, and the images that resulted were sharp. A few negatives should be noted. The app should provide for export to mail, some of the social networks, or even saving it to the camera roll. As it is, you have to take a screenshot by holding down the home and power button on the iPad. I'd also like to see the ability to import images of my own to use as a background, rather than be stuck with the 4 images supplied. Still, I'm impressed to see ray tracing on an iPad. It's not a must-have app, by any means, but I applaud the creativity and it's a great demo. The app is US $1.99, and there is also an iPhone version for $0.99 and a stripped down free iPhone version if you want to give it a try. I've included some screen shots and renderings in the gallery. %Gallery-133938%
WikiHouse promises printable homes, work for the world's idle CNC routers
If you want something done right, do it yourself. That includes building a house, but that's a project out of reach for many DIYers. Enter WikiHouse, a community for open-source home designs. There you can mix and match architectural plans using Google SketchUp; once you've settled on your dream home, just print to your waiting CNC router and start building. That's the idea, anyway: the site's still under construction, with the designers planning to debut the first WikiHouse in September during South Korea's Gwangju Design Biennale 2011. Sure, it certainly won't be as flashy as Electronic House's Home of the Year, where wall-mounted iPads control the shower temperature, or Sharp's prototype zero-emission house, with its 180-inch LCD. But does suggest a new, DIY way of thinking about the "home of the future."
Create your own worlds with TerraRay 4
In the early days of the Mac, I used to love playing around with Bryce, which could generate very realistic scenery, which was my forte, or bizarre other worldly scenes straight out of science fiction flick. Bryce is still around, along with high-end rendering programs such as Vue. These programs aren't cheap. Bryce is $249.95 for the Pro version and Vue has versions from $99 to $995 but they have amazing features and power. I've been playing with TerraRay 4, which currently is on sale for $4.99. It's a great way to explore landscape creation on a budget. This app doesn't create animations like its high-end cousins, but it has some easy-to-use tools that will let you create some stunning landscapes with not too much effort. The app allows you to control lighting, the materials that make up the surface of your creations and can produce realistic skies and fog. It also allows you to import models in the popular 3ds file format. You can learn more at the developer website and see a video of the app in action. The app contains complete documentation. I didn't do anything too fancy, but was able to create some canyons with water and decent looking skies with ease. The only real downside is the final rendering speed. For a large scene it might take an hour to do all the detail and ray tracing. That's just far too long for the size of file that is being output. One fairly simple render in TerraRay 4 took more than 30 minutes. Of course, it can be done in the background, and the final result looked fine, but this program really needs to be optimized for speed. The program only saves in .png format, which seems a bit shortsighted, and other file formats would be useful. Check out the app at the developer's website and see if it suits your needs. I also have some images in the gallery. I would say TerraRay 4 is powerful, inexpensive, but dog slow. Don't expect it to be as good as the big boys, but it more than holds its own. I recommend this app if you are getting your feet wet with synthetic landscape generation. The app needs OS X 10.6 or greater, it functions fully under Lion, and is a 24 MB download. %Gallery-130093%
