RenderPipe integrates with Maya, VIZ and 3ds max to give users access to hardware-accelerated ray tracing on ART VPS’s PURE and RenderDrive systems. The new RenderPipe plug-ins extend support for color and environment nodes in Maya 6 and VIZ 2005. ART VPS has also increased RenderPipe speed by caching data on PURE or RenderDrive systems between frames, saving re-export of unchanged data on consecutive frames.

RenderPipe supports standard materials and RenderMan RP shaders for all versions of Maya, VIZ and 3ds max. It comes with ART VPS’s RenderCoat material library, which provides physically based surface materials tuned for PURE and RenderDrive’s accelerated ray tracing.

In conjunction with the new RenderPipe release, ART VPS now offers interactive tutorials for 3ds max and Maya; the step-by-step videos help customers get the most out of PURE and RenderDrive ray tracing.

Free downloads of RenderPipe for Maya, VIZ and 3ds max are available at artvps.com. The new RenderPipe software is being shipped with all new products, and is free to current ART VPS software subscribers.

About PURE and RenderDrive PURE and RenderDrive incorporate ART VPS’s modular ray-tracing architecture, which accelerates 3D rendering by distributing it across an array of chips. The systems generate full-frame previews in seconds, and give users 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.