SCIENCE

NVIDIA and Autodesk are jointly demonstrating powerful new capabilities based upon NVIDIA technology, expected to come to Autodesk 3ds Max software Subscription members as part of the 3ds Max 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack this fall. NVIDIA and Autodesk have worked to revolutionize photorealistic rendering and physics simulation with the integration of the new GPU-accelerated iray renderer from mental images and a new rigid body physics workflow powered by NVIDIA PhysX technology into both Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack software.

The new iray renderer within 3ds Max provides creative visualization artists with a more intuitive means for creating images that rival photographs, in a fraction of the time needed with traditional workflows. 3D artists can now use materials and lights which correspond and react more like those in the physical world to more quickly bring their 3ds Max worlds to life, rather than juggling a multitude of computer graphics controls to merely approximate it. The iray workflow is enhanced with considerable acceleration from NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) based on the NVIDIA CUDA architecture. While iray produces identical images on either CPUs or GPUs, 3ds Max users will enjoy up to 6X faster results over dual quad-core CPUs when using a GPU such as the new NVIDIA Quadro 5000 or Tesla C2050.(1) Designers looking for the fastest iray results can further boost their speed by adding additional NVIDIA GPUs to their system.

NVIDIA PhysX technology fuels a new rigid body dynamics feature set for 3ds Max, allowing animators to control their simulations directly within the 3ds Max viewport. The PhysX feature supports static, dynamic, and kinematic rigid bodies and an array of constraints in a more efficient workflow that has been production proven by numerous game developers over the past several years. Realistic results are more quickly achieved by choosing from preset real-world materials having physical properties, and then tweaking parameters as required. The resulting simulations are immediately usable by effects artists and have a seamless data path to the PhysX engine employed by top tier game developers such as Sumea and Obsidion.

"We continually aim to provide superior workflows and cutting-edge capabilities within 3ds Max, and the rendering and physics solutions powered by NVIDIA technologies excel at continuing that 20 year tradition," said Ken Pimentel, director of Visual Communication Solutions at Autodesk. "This update is a terrific leap forward for our 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design Subscription members, who will have physics directly in their viewports with PhysX and can soon enter this next stage of the rendering revolution with iray's GPU accelerated rendering."