Nvidia Gelato Rendering Software Supports Maya

[Tami]

Nvidia Gelato Rendering Software Supports Alias Maya

Santa Clara, CA; November 8, 2004 -- Nvidia Corporation, a leader in graphics and digital media processors, has announced that Nvidia Gelato 1.1, the latest version of its hardware-accelerated, final-frame renderer, is now available for sale directly from Nvidia and through its global network of resellers. The Gelato 1.1 renderer features a new version of its Mango plug-in for Alias Maya and introduces an innovative new feature called Preview Mode that allows for ultra-high speed rendering of an image with user-defined image quality and fidelity to preview the final render.

Mango, which is included free with the purchase of Gelato, now provides translations of most of the Maya Hypershade nodes that ship with Maya, seamlessly rendering images through Gelato shaded with these nodes. The packaged Hypershade nodes can also be layered with shaders written specifically for Gelato for the ultimate in flexibility and control over the effects.

Preview Mode allows the artist to make decisions on lights, geometry, and shaders, selectively trading time for quality on features such as motion blur and anti-aliasing, enabling artists to see an approximation of the final image in seconds, instead of minutes or even hours. Best of all, since the image viewed in Preview Mode doesn't require a different set of shaders or other assets, no additional prep work or changes to the production pipeline are necessary.

Other new features in Gelato 1.1 include:
-- Depth of field creates realistic blurring effects for objects at varying distance from the "lens," simulating the focal plane of a camera.
-- Network parallel rendering permits multiple servers to work in concert to render a single frame.
-- OpenEXR plug-in for reading and writing data in the OpenEXR high dynamic-range (HDR) image file input/output format developed by Industrial Light & Magic.
-- Performance enhancements allow Gelato to run faster and more efficiently than version 1.0. In particular, improved speed and image quality in curves (hair), points, and shadows are implemented, plus improved speed for multi-threaded CPUs.

Gelato 1.1 is currently shipping for both Windows XP and Linux, priced at $2750 per workstation or server node and an annual fee of $525 for maintenance and support. An evaluation version and additional product details, including a list of Gelato's resellers, are available at [url=\"http://film.nvidia.com\"]http://film.nvidia.com[/url].

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