Ray
Content
Ray-tracing works sort of like a camera in real life, but in reverse. With a camera (or your eyes, for that matter), rays of light from the environment enter the lens and hit the film/digital chip/meaty eye cells. Something magical happens where the light hits and we get an image! [5:30:36 PM] mahesh.gosemath: With ray tracing, we start at each point on our "film" or image, and blast a ray out of our camera lens and see what it hits. What it hits determines the color and brightness at that spot on the film. Of course by "film" I mean digital image, and by "spot" I mean pixel. [5:31:10 PM] mahesh.gosemath: http://www.superjer.com/pixelmachine/
http://www.arachnoid.com/raytracing/
Our product philosophy encompasses seven fundamental principles which serve as the foundation for the Vue product line and its on-going development:
Unrivaled Natural Scenery Creation
Vue provides an unparalleled ability to create rich, natural 3D scenery complete with diverse EcoSystems of wind-swept trees and plants, realistic Spectral atmospheres, stunning cloudscapes, detailed terrains and water, all of which are fully animatable. Precise Artistic Control
To maximize artistic flexibility and precision, rich usability features such as the Ecosystem painter and terrain sculpter are crafted into a highly interactive user experience. With Vue, you have complete, precise control over the placement, appearance, and behavior of any natural scenery element. Leading Edge Performance
Vue enables you to create scenes of virtually limitless size, scope and complexity containing millions of trees, stormy oceans, imported characters and objects, and finely detailed landscapes. Whether rendering on a single workstation or across an entire render farm such as HyperVue, Vue provides maximum flexibility with optimal performance. Vivid Realism
From faux-real to photo-real, Vue provides a platform where art truly imitates life. The availability of multiple lighting models, cutting-edge outdoor/indoor Radiosity, and high fidelity materials, combine to deliver crisp, finely-detailed images and animations with superb quality. Immersive Interoperability
Vue provides a highly interoperable environment to accommodate any production workflow. With our xStream Professional Solution, Vue is immersively embedded as a fully integrated plug-in for 3ds Max, Maya, LightWave, Cinema4D and XSI. Additionally, all Vue products include a wide array of fully agnostic import/export facilities. Extensive Content
The large Digital Nature content libraries packaged with Vue, along with the thousands of high quality items available on-line at Cornucopia 3D, allows virtually any scene imaginable to be construction with a minimum of effort, and without time-consuming modeling. Inviting User Experience
The Vue user experience is designed from the "outside-in", meaning that the user interaction model is a primary design consideration when adding features and capabilities. For many users, Vue is their first entryway into the 3D world, and therefore, we strive to ensure that this experience is easy to learn, fun to use, and not overwhelming or complex.
1.1.2 What is Ray-Tracing?
Ray-tracing is a rendering technique that calculates an image of a scene by simulating the way rays of light travel in the real world. However it does its job backwards. In the real world, rays of light are emitted from a light source and illuminate objects. The light reflects off of the objects or passes through transparent objects. This reflected light hits our eyes or perhaps a camera lens. Because the vast majority of rays never hit an observer, it would take forever to trace a scene. Ray-tracing programs like POV-Ray start with their simulated camera and trace rays backwards out into the scene. The user specifies the location of the camera, light sources, and objects as well as the surface texture properties of objects, their interiors (if transparent) and any atmospheric media such as fog, haze, or fire. For every pixel in the final image one or more viewing rays are shot from the camera, into the scene to see if it intersects with any of the objects in the scene. These "viewing rays" originate from the viewer, represented by the camera, and pass through the viewing window (representing the final image). Every time an object is hit, the color of the surface at that point is calculated. For this purpose rays are sent backwards to each light source to determine the amount of light coming from the source. These "shadow rays" are tested to tell whether the surface point lies in shadow or not. If the surface is reflective or transparent new rays are set up and traced in order to determine the contribution of the reflected and refracted light to the final surface color. Special features like inter-diffuse reflection (radiosity), atmospheric effects and area lights make it necessary to shoot a lot of additional rays into the scene for every pixel.
VUE 9 PRE RELEASE AVAILABLE FOR USERS UNDER MAINTENANCE October 12, 2010. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, the leader in Digital Nature solutions today announced the formal unveiling of its upcoming Vue 9 product line - scheduled for release during the first half of November, 2010. Among other significant advances, this new release introduces revolutionary anti-flickering algorithms specifically engineered for the rendering of large, ultra-detailed natural environments. Thanks to this breakthrough rendering technology, e-on software anticipates that this new release will extend the use of Vue beyond the scope of matte paintings into the realms of fully animated 3D shots.
Release Schedule and Product Lineup E-on software expects to release the entire Vue 9 product line in the first half of November 2010*. The Vue 9 product line is architectured around the same three-tiered family structure: * Vue 9 for CG Professionals: Vue 9 Infinite and Vue 9 xStream. Offers CG professionals the premiere solution for creating exceptionally rich and realistic Digital Nature environments with seamless integration into any production workflow.
* Vue 9 for 3D Artists: Vue 9 Esprit, Vue 9 Studio and Vue 9 Complete. Provides 3D artists with powerful modular applications to create rich 3D Digital Nature scenery and landscapes. * Vue 9 for 3D Enthusiasts: Vue 9 Pioneer, Theme-Packs and Vue 9 Frontier. Published by Cornucopia3D, powered by e-on software, these products feature contentfilled, easy-to-use scenic nature creation for home and family use, with Vue 9 Frontier specifically dedicated to Poser and Daz|Studio users. *Professional solutions will ship first, followed closely by products for 3D Artists and 3D Enthusiasts. Next Generation Features Capitalizing on breakthrough technologies introduced in previous versions, Vue 9 adds a number of new and extended features such as: * New flicker reduction algorithms: Vue 9 proudly introduces new flicker reduction algorithms developed by e-on software. These algorithms produce animated renders with a noticeably reduced amount of flickering, reinforcing Vue as the ultimate solution for rendering animated natural environments. * Faster Rendering: thanks to internal refactoring, Vue 9 renders up to 30% faster than previous versions! * Relighting: to instantly adjust the lighting of the scene after the render completes ± lights can be turned on and off, colors can be changed, all in real-time! * Interactive Network Rendering: thanks to advanced data fragmentation and caching for the distribution of scenes to the rendering nodes, Vue 9 allows for completely interactive network rendering. Scenes are rendered to the screen while the network is handled in the background automatically. * Improved Terrain Editor: Contextual brushes and fully customizable terrain brushes, automatic Terrain Retopology, Sculpting and Painting masks, Smear brush, Terrain Canvas extension, ... * EcoSystem 4: dramatically reduced flickering, optimized rendering and memory management for Dynamic EcoSystems, animated EcoSystem populations, and more ... * HDR Multi-Pass Rendering, * HyperBlob Technology: convert HyperTextured MetaBlobs to polygon objects with user defined LOD - ideal for the creation of extremely rich and detailed rock formations, * Custom Interfaces: to create simplified high-level controls and access these controls directly from the material editor, the terrain editor or the object editors! * Auto Saving and Scene Snapshots: this unique and innovative technology automatically saves the scenes in the background, while working, without interfering with the user workflow! * And much more (Rocky Mountains fractals, Inverse Kinematics, Cloud Radiosity, RealWorld units, Catmull-Clark subdivision, improved texture management, native Cocoa, new interface design, ...)
1.1.4 Features
Here are some highlights of POV-Ray's features:
y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y
y y
y
y y y y
Easy to use scene description language. Large library of stunning example scene files. Standard include files that pre-define many shapes, colors and textures. Very high quality output image files (up to 48-bit color). 16 and 24 bit color display on many computer platforms using appropriate hardware. Create landscapes using smoothed height fields. Many camera types, including perspective, orthographic, fisheye, etc. Spotlights, cylindrical lights and area lights for sophisticated lighting. Photons for realistic, reflected and refracted, caustics. Photons also interact with media. Phong and specular highlighting for more realistic-looking surfaces. Inter-diffuse reflection (radiosity) for more realistic lighting. Atmospheric effects like atmosphere, ground-fog and rainbow. Particle media to model effects like clouds, dust, fire and steam. Several image file output formats including Targa, BMP (Windows only), PNG and PPM. Basic shape primitives such as ... spheres, boxes, quadrics, cylinders, cones, triangle and planes. Advanced shape primitives such as ... Tori (donuts), bezier patches, height fields (mountains), blobs, quartics, smooth triangles, text, superquadrics, surfaces of revolution, prisms,polygons, lathes, fractals, isosurfaces and the parametric object. Shapes can easily be combined to create new complex shapes using Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG). POV-Ray supports unions, merges, intersections and differences. Objects are assigned materials called textures (a texture describes the coloring and surface properties of a shape) and interior properties such as index of refraction and particle media (formerly known as "halos"). Built-in color and normal patterns: Agate, Bozo, Bumps, Checker, Crackle, Dents, Granite, Gradient, Hexagon, Leopard, Mandel, M arble, Onion, Quilted, Ripples, Spotted, Spiral,Radial, Waves, Wood, Wrinkles and image file mapping. Or build your own pattern using functions. Users can create their own textures or use pre-defined textures such as ... Brass, Chrome, Copper, Gold, Silver, Stone, Wood. Combine textures using layering of semi-transparent textures or tiles of textures or material map files. Display preview of image while rendering (not available on all platforms). Halt and save a render part way through, and continue rendering the halted partial render later.
What is Rendering? Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model, by means of computer programs.
The model is a description of three dimensional objects in a strictly defined language or data structure. It would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information. Based on a solid ray-tracing foundation, Vue s render engine incorporates all of today s high-end features, yet stands out in its ability to handle huge poly counts quickly and efficiently.
What is Ray Tracing? Ray tracing is a technique for generating an image by tracing the path of light through pixels in an image plane and simulating the effects of its encounters with virtual objects. The technique is capable of producing a very high degree of visual realism, usually higher than that of typical scanline rendering methods.
About e-on software E-on software is the leading developer of solutions for the creation, animation, rendering and integration of natural 3D environments. Offering a wide array of Digital Nature products and applications, e-on software provides solutions adapted to every project and budget. E-on software products are used worldwide by the film, television, architecture, game, science, educational and entertainment industries.
E-on Software Ships Vue 9 Infinite and Vue 9 xStream
VUE 9 FOR 3D ARTISTS AND 3D ENTHUSIASTS SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE MID NOVEMBER
November 04, 2010. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, the leader in Digital Nature solutions today announced the immediate availability of its Vue 9 line of products for CG Professionals. "Vue 9 includes a wide array of rich new features and performance enhancements for creating Digital Nature scenery with more precision and power than ever before", said Nicholas Phelps, President of e-on Software. "We believe our valued customers will find that Vue 9 continues to set the pace as the leading Digital Nature solution across the many diverse markets we serve including architecture, animation, special effects, broadcast, art & illustration, and scientific." In order to assure a smooth transition, and to avoid order processing congestion, e-on software also announced that it will release the rest of the Vue 9 product line ± Pioneer & Theme-packs, Frontier, Esprit, Studio and Complete ± mid November 2010.
Vue 9 xStream ± The Integrated Solution: Vue 9 xStream, e-on¶s flagship solution, offers CG professionals the premiere solution for creating exceptionally rich and realistic Digital Nature environments, fully immersed within Autodesk 3ds Max, Maya, and Softimage, Maxon Cinema 4D or Newtek LightWave. All Vue tools are fully integrated in the host application as menus and toolbars and directly accessible from within the host interface, providing immediate access to the most advanced 3D environment creation technologies. Vue 9 Infinite ± The Standalone Solution:
Vue 9 Infinite offers CG professionals the premiere solution for creating exceptionally rich and realistic Digital Nature environments in a stand-alone package. Vue 9 Infinite is the ideal tool for multimedia and entertainment professionals, architects and graphics designers.
Next Generation Features Among other significant advances, this new release introduces revolutionary anti-flickering algorithms specifically engineered for the rendering of large, ultra-detailed natural environments. Thanks to this breakthrough rendering technology, e-on software anticipates that this new release will extend the use of Vue beyond the scope of matte paintings and into the realm of fully animated 3D shots. Capitalizing on breakthrough technologies introduced in previous versions, Vue 9 adds a number of new and extended features such as: y New flicker reduction algorithms: Vue 9 proudly introduces new flicker reduction algorithms developed by e-on software. These algorithms produce animated renders with a noticeably reduced amount of flickering in a third of the time*, reinforcing Vue as the ultimate solution for rendering animated natural environments. Watch the new flicker reduction algorithms in action! y Faster Rendering: thanks to internal refactoring, Vue 9 renders up to 30% faster than previous versions! y Relighting: instantly adjusts the lighting of the scene after the render completes ± lights can be turned on and off, colors can be changed, all in real-time! Watch Relighting in action! y Interactive Network Rendering: using advanced data fragmentation and caching for the distribution of scenes to the rendering nodes, Vue 9 allows for completely interactive network rendering. Scenes are rendered to the screen while the network is handled in the background automatically. y Improved Terrain Editor: improvements include contextual brushes and fully customizable terrain brushes, automatic Terrain Retopology, Sculpting and Painting masks, Smear brush, Terrain Canvas extension, ... y EcoSystem 4: includes dramatically reduced flickering, optimized rendering and memory management for Dynamic EcoSystems, animated EcoSystem populations, and more... Watch EcoSystem 4 in action! y HDR Multi-Pass Rendering, y HyperBlob Technology: converts HyperTextured MetaBlobs to polygon objects with user defined LOD ideal for the creation of extremely rich and detailed rock formations! y Custom Interfaces: create simplified high-level controls and access these controls directly from the material editor, the terrain editor or the object editors! y Auto Saving and Scene Snapshots: this unique and innovative technology automatically saves the scenes in the background, while working, without interfering with the user workflow! y And much more (Rocky Mountains fractals, Inverse Kinematics, Cloud Radiosity, Real-World units, Catmull-Clark subdivision, improved texture management, native Cocoa, new interface design, ...) More details on the new features are available on the www.e-onsoftware.com/infinite and www.e-onsoftware.com/xstream e-on software website, at:
* Compared to the same render settings in Vue 8.5
Pricing and Availability Standard Retail Price:
Vue 9 xStream retails for $1,790 (with one year maintenance), and upgrades from Vue 8 xStream starting at $395. Vue 9 Infinite retails for $1,190 (with one year maintenance), with upgrades from Vue 8 Infinite starting at $295 (see full product pricelist at /www.e-onsoftware.com/pricelist for details). Annual subscriptions for Educational licenses of Vue xStream and Infinite are available respectively for $149 and $99 per seat and per year. Upgrades to Vue 9 are free for owners of active educational licenses. Site licensing discounts are available for both products. Contact e-on software for further details and pricing information. Following the terms of the complimentary 30 day maintenance included with each new purchase, customers who purchased Vue 8.5 xStream or Vue 8.5 Infinite after October 04, 2010 will automatically receive their upgrade to Vue 9 at no charge. Yearly maintenance plans are available for both products. More information on e-on software¶s maintenance plans can be found at: www.e-onsoftware.com/maintenance
http://www.arachnoid.com/raytracing/
Our product philosophy encompasses seven fundamental principles which serve as the foundation for the Vue product line and its on-going development:
Unrivaled Natural Scenery Creation
Vue provides an unparalleled ability to create rich, natural 3D scenery complete with diverse EcoSystems of wind-swept trees and plants, realistic Spectral atmospheres, stunning cloudscapes, detailed terrains and water, all of which are fully animatable. Precise Artistic Control
To maximize artistic flexibility and precision, rich usability features such as the Ecosystem painter and terrain sculpter are crafted into a highly interactive user experience. With Vue, you have complete, precise control over the placement, appearance, and behavior of any natural scenery element. Leading Edge Performance
Vue enables you to create scenes of virtually limitless size, scope and complexity containing millions of trees, stormy oceans, imported characters and objects, and finely detailed landscapes. Whether rendering on a single workstation or across an entire render farm such as HyperVue, Vue provides maximum flexibility with optimal performance. Vivid Realism
From faux-real to photo-real, Vue provides a platform where art truly imitates life. The availability of multiple lighting models, cutting-edge outdoor/indoor Radiosity, and high fidelity materials, combine to deliver crisp, finely-detailed images and animations with superb quality. Immersive Interoperability
Vue provides a highly interoperable environment to accommodate any production workflow. With our xStream Professional Solution, Vue is immersively embedded as a fully integrated plug-in for 3ds Max, Maya, LightWave, Cinema4D and XSI. Additionally, all Vue products include a wide array of fully agnostic import/export facilities. Extensive Content
The large Digital Nature content libraries packaged with Vue, along with the thousands of high quality items available on-line at Cornucopia 3D, allows virtually any scene imaginable to be construction with a minimum of effort, and without time-consuming modeling. Inviting User Experience
The Vue user experience is designed from the "outside-in", meaning that the user interaction model is a primary design consideration when adding features and capabilities. For many users, Vue is their first entryway into the 3D world, and therefore, we strive to ensure that this experience is easy to learn, fun to use, and not overwhelming or complex.
1.1.2 What is Ray-Tracing?
Ray-tracing is a rendering technique that calculates an image of a scene by simulating the way rays of light travel in the real world. However it does its job backwards. In the real world, rays of light are emitted from a light source and illuminate objects. The light reflects off of the objects or passes through transparent objects. This reflected light hits our eyes or perhaps a camera lens. Because the vast majority of rays never hit an observer, it would take forever to trace a scene. Ray-tracing programs like POV-Ray start with their simulated camera and trace rays backwards out into the scene. The user specifies the location of the camera, light sources, and objects as well as the surface texture properties of objects, their interiors (if transparent) and any atmospheric media such as fog, haze, or fire. For every pixel in the final image one or more viewing rays are shot from the camera, into the scene to see if it intersects with any of the objects in the scene. These "viewing rays" originate from the viewer, represented by the camera, and pass through the viewing window (representing the final image). Every time an object is hit, the color of the surface at that point is calculated. For this purpose rays are sent backwards to each light source to determine the amount of light coming from the source. These "shadow rays" are tested to tell whether the surface point lies in shadow or not. If the surface is reflective or transparent new rays are set up and traced in order to determine the contribution of the reflected and refracted light to the final surface color. Special features like inter-diffuse reflection (radiosity), atmospheric effects and area lights make it necessary to shoot a lot of additional rays into the scene for every pixel.
VUE 9 PRE RELEASE AVAILABLE FOR USERS UNDER MAINTENANCE October 12, 2010. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, the leader in Digital Nature solutions today announced the formal unveiling of its upcoming Vue 9 product line - scheduled for release during the first half of November, 2010. Among other significant advances, this new release introduces revolutionary anti-flickering algorithms specifically engineered for the rendering of large, ultra-detailed natural environments. Thanks to this breakthrough rendering technology, e-on software anticipates that this new release will extend the use of Vue beyond the scope of matte paintings into the realms of fully animated 3D shots.
Release Schedule and Product Lineup E-on software expects to release the entire Vue 9 product line in the first half of November 2010*. The Vue 9 product line is architectured around the same three-tiered family structure: * Vue 9 for CG Professionals: Vue 9 Infinite and Vue 9 xStream. Offers CG professionals the premiere solution for creating exceptionally rich and realistic Digital Nature environments with seamless integration into any production workflow.
* Vue 9 for 3D Artists: Vue 9 Esprit, Vue 9 Studio and Vue 9 Complete. Provides 3D artists with powerful modular applications to create rich 3D Digital Nature scenery and landscapes. * Vue 9 for 3D Enthusiasts: Vue 9 Pioneer, Theme-Packs and Vue 9 Frontier. Published by Cornucopia3D, powered by e-on software, these products feature contentfilled, easy-to-use scenic nature creation for home and family use, with Vue 9 Frontier specifically dedicated to Poser and Daz|Studio users. *Professional solutions will ship first, followed closely by products for 3D Artists and 3D Enthusiasts. Next Generation Features Capitalizing on breakthrough technologies introduced in previous versions, Vue 9 adds a number of new and extended features such as: * New flicker reduction algorithms: Vue 9 proudly introduces new flicker reduction algorithms developed by e-on software. These algorithms produce animated renders with a noticeably reduced amount of flickering, reinforcing Vue as the ultimate solution for rendering animated natural environments. * Faster Rendering: thanks to internal refactoring, Vue 9 renders up to 30% faster than previous versions! * Relighting: to instantly adjust the lighting of the scene after the render completes ± lights can be turned on and off, colors can be changed, all in real-time! * Interactive Network Rendering: thanks to advanced data fragmentation and caching for the distribution of scenes to the rendering nodes, Vue 9 allows for completely interactive network rendering. Scenes are rendered to the screen while the network is handled in the background automatically. * Improved Terrain Editor: Contextual brushes and fully customizable terrain brushes, automatic Terrain Retopology, Sculpting and Painting masks, Smear brush, Terrain Canvas extension, ... * EcoSystem 4: dramatically reduced flickering, optimized rendering and memory management for Dynamic EcoSystems, animated EcoSystem populations, and more ... * HDR Multi-Pass Rendering, * HyperBlob Technology: convert HyperTextured MetaBlobs to polygon objects with user defined LOD - ideal for the creation of extremely rich and detailed rock formations, * Custom Interfaces: to create simplified high-level controls and access these controls directly from the material editor, the terrain editor or the object editors! * Auto Saving and Scene Snapshots: this unique and innovative technology automatically saves the scenes in the background, while working, without interfering with the user workflow! * And much more (Rocky Mountains fractals, Inverse Kinematics, Cloud Radiosity, RealWorld units, Catmull-Clark subdivision, improved texture management, native Cocoa, new interface design, ...)
1.1.4 Features
Here are some highlights of POV-Ray's features:
y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y
y y
y
y y y y
Easy to use scene description language. Large library of stunning example scene files. Standard include files that pre-define many shapes, colors and textures. Very high quality output image files (up to 48-bit color). 16 and 24 bit color display on many computer platforms using appropriate hardware. Create landscapes using smoothed height fields. Many camera types, including perspective, orthographic, fisheye, etc. Spotlights, cylindrical lights and area lights for sophisticated lighting. Photons for realistic, reflected and refracted, caustics. Photons also interact with media. Phong and specular highlighting for more realistic-looking surfaces. Inter-diffuse reflection (radiosity) for more realistic lighting. Atmospheric effects like atmosphere, ground-fog and rainbow. Particle media to model effects like clouds, dust, fire and steam. Several image file output formats including Targa, BMP (Windows only), PNG and PPM. Basic shape primitives such as ... spheres, boxes, quadrics, cylinders, cones, triangle and planes. Advanced shape primitives such as ... Tori (donuts), bezier patches, height fields (mountains), blobs, quartics, smooth triangles, text, superquadrics, surfaces of revolution, prisms,polygons, lathes, fractals, isosurfaces and the parametric object. Shapes can easily be combined to create new complex shapes using Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG). POV-Ray supports unions, merges, intersections and differences. Objects are assigned materials called textures (a texture describes the coloring and surface properties of a shape) and interior properties such as index of refraction and particle media (formerly known as "halos"). Built-in color and normal patterns: Agate, Bozo, Bumps, Checker, Crackle, Dents, Granite, Gradient, Hexagon, Leopard, Mandel, M arble, Onion, Quilted, Ripples, Spotted, Spiral,Radial, Waves, Wood, Wrinkles and image file mapping. Or build your own pattern using functions. Users can create their own textures or use pre-defined textures such as ... Brass, Chrome, Copper, Gold, Silver, Stone, Wood. Combine textures using layering of semi-transparent textures or tiles of textures or material map files. Display preview of image while rendering (not available on all platforms). Halt and save a render part way through, and continue rendering the halted partial render later.
What is Rendering? Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model, by means of computer programs.
The model is a description of three dimensional objects in a strictly defined language or data structure. It would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information. Based on a solid ray-tracing foundation, Vue s render engine incorporates all of today s high-end features, yet stands out in its ability to handle huge poly counts quickly and efficiently.
What is Ray Tracing? Ray tracing is a technique for generating an image by tracing the path of light through pixels in an image plane and simulating the effects of its encounters with virtual objects. The technique is capable of producing a very high degree of visual realism, usually higher than that of typical scanline rendering methods.
About e-on software E-on software is the leading developer of solutions for the creation, animation, rendering and integration of natural 3D environments. Offering a wide array of Digital Nature products and applications, e-on software provides solutions adapted to every project and budget. E-on software products are used worldwide by the film, television, architecture, game, science, educational and entertainment industries.
E-on Software Ships Vue 9 Infinite and Vue 9 xStream
VUE 9 FOR 3D ARTISTS AND 3D ENTHUSIASTS SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE MID NOVEMBER
November 04, 2010. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, the leader in Digital Nature solutions today announced the immediate availability of its Vue 9 line of products for CG Professionals. "Vue 9 includes a wide array of rich new features and performance enhancements for creating Digital Nature scenery with more precision and power than ever before", said Nicholas Phelps, President of e-on Software. "We believe our valued customers will find that Vue 9 continues to set the pace as the leading Digital Nature solution across the many diverse markets we serve including architecture, animation, special effects, broadcast, art & illustration, and scientific." In order to assure a smooth transition, and to avoid order processing congestion, e-on software also announced that it will release the rest of the Vue 9 product line ± Pioneer & Theme-packs, Frontier, Esprit, Studio and Complete ± mid November 2010.
Vue 9 xStream ± The Integrated Solution: Vue 9 xStream, e-on¶s flagship solution, offers CG professionals the premiere solution for creating exceptionally rich and realistic Digital Nature environments, fully immersed within Autodesk 3ds Max, Maya, and Softimage, Maxon Cinema 4D or Newtek LightWave. All Vue tools are fully integrated in the host application as menus and toolbars and directly accessible from within the host interface, providing immediate access to the most advanced 3D environment creation technologies. Vue 9 Infinite ± The Standalone Solution:
Vue 9 Infinite offers CG professionals the premiere solution for creating exceptionally rich and realistic Digital Nature environments in a stand-alone package. Vue 9 Infinite is the ideal tool for multimedia and entertainment professionals, architects and graphics designers.
Next Generation Features Among other significant advances, this new release introduces revolutionary anti-flickering algorithms specifically engineered for the rendering of large, ultra-detailed natural environments. Thanks to this breakthrough rendering technology, e-on software anticipates that this new release will extend the use of Vue beyond the scope of matte paintings and into the realm of fully animated 3D shots. Capitalizing on breakthrough technologies introduced in previous versions, Vue 9 adds a number of new and extended features such as: y New flicker reduction algorithms: Vue 9 proudly introduces new flicker reduction algorithms developed by e-on software. These algorithms produce animated renders with a noticeably reduced amount of flickering in a third of the time*, reinforcing Vue as the ultimate solution for rendering animated natural environments. Watch the new flicker reduction algorithms in action! y Faster Rendering: thanks to internal refactoring, Vue 9 renders up to 30% faster than previous versions! y Relighting: instantly adjusts the lighting of the scene after the render completes ± lights can be turned on and off, colors can be changed, all in real-time! Watch Relighting in action! y Interactive Network Rendering: using advanced data fragmentation and caching for the distribution of scenes to the rendering nodes, Vue 9 allows for completely interactive network rendering. Scenes are rendered to the screen while the network is handled in the background automatically. y Improved Terrain Editor: improvements include contextual brushes and fully customizable terrain brushes, automatic Terrain Retopology, Sculpting and Painting masks, Smear brush, Terrain Canvas extension, ... y EcoSystem 4: includes dramatically reduced flickering, optimized rendering and memory management for Dynamic EcoSystems, animated EcoSystem populations, and more... Watch EcoSystem 4 in action! y HDR Multi-Pass Rendering, y HyperBlob Technology: converts HyperTextured MetaBlobs to polygon objects with user defined LOD ideal for the creation of extremely rich and detailed rock formations! y Custom Interfaces: create simplified high-level controls and access these controls directly from the material editor, the terrain editor or the object editors! y Auto Saving and Scene Snapshots: this unique and innovative technology automatically saves the scenes in the background, while working, without interfering with the user workflow! y And much more (Rocky Mountains fractals, Inverse Kinematics, Cloud Radiosity, Real-World units, Catmull-Clark subdivision, improved texture management, native Cocoa, new interface design, ...) More details on the new features are available on the www.e-onsoftware.com/infinite and www.e-onsoftware.com/xstream e-on software website, at:
* Compared to the same render settings in Vue 8.5
Pricing and Availability Standard Retail Price:
Vue 9 xStream retails for $1,790 (with one year maintenance), and upgrades from Vue 8 xStream starting at $395. Vue 9 Infinite retails for $1,190 (with one year maintenance), with upgrades from Vue 8 Infinite starting at $295 (see full product pricelist at /www.e-onsoftware.com/pricelist for details). Annual subscriptions for Educational licenses of Vue xStream and Infinite are available respectively for $149 and $99 per seat and per year. Upgrades to Vue 9 are free for owners of active educational licenses. Site licensing discounts are available for both products. Contact e-on software for further details and pricing information. Following the terms of the complimentary 30 day maintenance included with each new purchase, customers who purchased Vue 8.5 xStream or Vue 8.5 Infinite after October 04, 2010 will automatically receive their upgrade to Vue 9 at no charge. Yearly maintenance plans are available for both products. More information on e-on software¶s maintenance plans can be found at: www.e-onsoftware.com/maintenance
