ART VPS Ltd., a maker of hardware-accelerated 3D visualization systems, has lowered entry-level prices and provided an easier upgrade path for its RenderDrive systems. The company also announced that over the next few months it will raise up to $1 million from company shareholders to expand sales and marketing efforts.
The price of ART VPS’ entry-level RenderDrive model – the RD3500 with 12 AR350 chips – has been reduced by $5,000 to $13,000. A new $4,500 RAYzor kit allows users to add six additional AR350 chips to the RD3500 and upgrade in increments to a RD5000 system with 36 AR350 chips. As an introduction to hardware-accelerated, ray-traced rendering, ART VPS offers the $3,400 PURE PCI card with eight AR350 chips. All PURE and RenderDrive buyers receive site-wide discreet 3ds max, Alias Maya and Autodesk VIZ plug-ins at no additional cost.
PURE and RenderDrive feature ART VPS’s modular ray-tracing architecture, which enables 3D rendering to be split across an array of chips. It is the only architecture that can provide full-frame previews in seconds, which speeds up iterations for tasks such as lighting set-up, shot composition and material mapping. PURE and RenderDrive give designers the speed to take advantage of advanced 3D rendering features such as multiple area lights, accurate 3D motion blur and depth of field, secondary illumination, HDRI lighting, and physically based materials, lighting and camera properties.
“The new pricing provides a solution to meet every need,” says Brian Tyler, ART VPS CEO. “PURE delivers a quantum leap in rendering performance and image quality at an entry-level price. The RD3500 is cost-effective for more demanding production environments, and users can incrementally work up to an RD5000, which provides renderfarm-like performance without set-up and maintenance costs and hassles.”
Tyler says that the infusion of investment from company shareholders reflects confidence in ART VPS’s technology and its marketing direction.
“We’ve been a dark horse, but our shareholders recognize the company’s potential,” he says. “We are ready to make a big showing in our selected markets.”
RenderDrive's ray tracing gave us a look we hadn't been able to achieve before. We're delivering a whole new quality threshold for our clients, and that's a crucial factor in winning new business. For us, it's almost an unfair advantage.
