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Revolutions in rendering technology don't come along every day. We started the trend with dedicated rendering hardware. Now we're continuing it with software that is fast, smart and very, very clever.
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ArtVPS CTO Michael Lawson shares his thoughts on harnessing GPU power to accelerate ray tracing.
ArtVPS to reward early adopters of Shaderlight
16 July 2009
ArtVPS, the specialist developer of photorealistic rendering solutions, has announced a generous discount programme designed to reward early adopters of Shaderlight, its physically based raytrace renderer plug-in for 3ds Max. Anyone who downloads the free pre-release version, Shaderlight 0.1, available now from www.artvps.com, will be entitled to free upgrades to interim versions, and will qualify for 50 percent off the cost of Shaderlight 1.0. Shaderlight 1.0 will cost $895, but those who download version 0.1 (available for free until 3 August 2009) will only pay $445 for the first full release.
Shaderlight enables CG professionals and visualisation specialists to make interactive changes to materials, environments, lights and textures (the MELT elements) on full quality 3D images, without having to re-render, improving efficiency and project turnaround. MELT changes can be made even while the image progressively refines, giving users the flexibility to edit their scene without having to wait for a render to finish. An innovative new approach to global illumination (GI) enables light, colour and intensity to be updated on screen also without the need to re-render.
A pre-release version of the software was launched in June 2009 and achieved over 800 unique downloads in the first two weeks of release. Early adopters of the technology are helping shape the development of the software by providing feedback and sharing experiences in the Shaderlight forum (www.artvps.com/content/discuss) and on Twitter (http://twitter.com/shaderlight).
“These early adopters are crucial to the success of Shaderlight,” says Kate Marshall, Marketing Director at ArtVPS. “Feedback from real-world users is being fed right back to our development team, enabling us to develop a solution based on what users need to do their job more effectively. We want to thank and reward them for their innovative spirit and ongoing support. The free version of Shaderlight is still available we would encourage as many people as possible to download it and get involved.”
Shaderlight 0.1 will be available as a free download until 3 August 2009, when ArtVPS will introduce a nominal introductory pricing scheme. New customers will pay $75 for version 0.2 but will be able to upgrade to interim versions for free as well as receiving a significant discount on the purchase of Shaderlight 1.0 to be released at the end of the year.
Shaderlight 0.1 is still available as a free download from www.artvps.com. To help new users get to grips with this early release of Shaderlight, a number of scenes that demo its capabilities are now available from: http://www.artvps.com/content/resources#sample-scenes
