ART VPS Ltd, a leading developer of high quality high performance 3D visualization systems, has begun shipments of its RenderPipe Max interface for Discreet 3dsmax V6. RenderPipe interfaces are software plug-ins, developed by ART VPS, that interface it’s powerful PURE and RenderDrive visualization solutions to popular 3D design applications. This latest version of RenderPipe MAX is released as part of the latest AV3 Software Update for PURE and RenderDrive that delivers more efficient rendering of animation sequences.

PURE and RenderDrive are optimized for architectural and mechanical engineering applications and enable fast generation of high-quality visualizations running on the 3ds max modeling, rendering, and animation platform. The ultra-realistic virtual photographs and animations created with these technologies provide architectural and product design firms with many benefits. Architectural practices can more effectively obtain design and zoning approvals — and add convincing images to marketing and promotional campaigns — well before actual construction begins. Product design agencies and manufacturing companies can visualize 3D CAD data quickly and efficiently helping to minimise design errors and reduce the cycle time in delivering a new product to market.

Shaw Graphics, based in Massachusetts, USA, has used RenderDrive with 3dsmax for several years for a wide range of visualization and artistic projects. Recent projects have included architectural fly-thru’s for the US department of defence. “RenderDrive is an indispensable tool in my 3D arsenal. I depend upon the extraordinary rendering quality of RenderDrive's dedicated ray-tracing processors to give my work vivid realism with clarity, consistency and lush unified color,” said Barclay Shaw, artist and director of Shaw Graphics.

“When it comes to realism, ART VPS sets the standard for 3D visualization tools in the architectural and engineering markets,” said Craig Wareham, VP Marketing at ART VPS. “But it’s not just the final rendered images that benefit. Using our unique parallel ray tracing architecture in combination with 3ds max, the entire production workflow is more efficient. Lighting, surfacing, and scene composition workflows are all accelerated by our powerful fully ray-traced previewing capabilities.”

RenderPipe MAX also integrates the powerful RenderMan Shading Language within the 3dsmax environment, creating a visualization toolset unique in any 3D application. PURE and RenderDrive support the RenderMan Language to provide a fully flexible and programmable rendering architecture – all accelerated by the ART VPS hardware platform. With RenderPipe MAX, design and animation professionals can combine RenderMan light, material and camera shaders with standard 3dsmax materials and with the physically based materials delivered within the ART VPS RenderCoat material library.

PURE and RenderDrive used with 3ds max have successfully been used by design firms worldwide including Procter & Gamble and Walt Disney Imagineering, who rely on PURE or RenderDrive for their ease of use and unsurpassed image quality.