You are here: Homepage » Products » Features

Features

RenderPipe is the name of ART’s specialised ray tracing software renderer. It is the only rendering software currently supported by our AR350 ray tracing processors. In order to use these large arrays of AR350 processors to render a single image the RenderPipe software has to analyse the 3D scene file and efficiently distribute the ray tracing tasks to the processor network, all running in parallel, and then process the resultant shaded pixels into a single image.
 
RenderPipe currently has application plug-in interfaces for the key Autodesk products - 3dsmax, VIZ and Maya and so is very well integrated with these applications.
 
The same RenderPipe renderer runs on all of ART’s ray tracing products, so there is complete pixel compatibility between them in supporting the following features:
 
Supported Features
Depth of Field 
Lens Effects  

High Dynamic Range
Motion Blur   

Reflections/Refractions

 
Ray Tracing
Ray tracing allows you tp properly visualise photorealistic effects, modelling in much more detail how real light rays travel through a 3D scene, interacting with surfaces, being reflected and refracted according to the laws of physics.
 
RenderPipe has been specifically designed by the software engineers at ART to run on large arrays of AR350 processors running simultaneously, using raw performance to speed up the ray tracing process and by assessing each frame for its ray depth requirements and adapting it for different areas of the image they also enhance rendering efficiency.
 
Lighting and Secondary Illumination
Real-world lighting and shadows are fundamental to rendering scenes that ring true, whether they are designed to simulate reality or create fantastic new worlds. Using ART's powerful ray traced processing platform, you can achieve soft and natural lighting, dramatic and moody lighting, or whatever lighting sheme you need. 
 
RenderPipe has been developed to give a natural and controllable result, enabling accurate and realistic representations of simple or complex lighting environments.  Lights are sizeable to become area lights, which provide light sources that naturally create soft shadows, they can also have visible geometry, correctly simulating highlights in reflective materials.
 
RenderMan
The RenderMan Shading Language is an open language that enables you to create your own rendering shaders. This industry standard graphics spec for 3D scene description and lets you create your own shaders to modify and extend the capabilities of the rendering engine.
 
Materials and Shading
With ARTVPS's unique RenderCoat materials, a more accurate and realistic representation of a design can be created. RenderCoat materials take a physical approach to sophisticated surface materials such as glass, ceramics, and metals and are tuned to take advantage of the accelerated ray tracing architecture of PURE and RenderDrive.

Camera and Lens Effects
Control over focal length, aperture, lens selection and shutter speed all provide a predictable set of parameters upon which a high degree of creativity can be based.  Renderpipe recreates this set of tools accurately within your 3D application allowing highly intuitive camera control and accurate results.