Ray tracing is a type of rendering based on the physical processes that occur in the real world. Images are generated by calculating the path of light through a scene and into the camera. Each pixel is produced by calculating the behavior of a number of light rays from different points over the area covered by that pixel. Therefore images rendered by the ray tracing method are highly photorealistic and of excellent quality. Ray tracing is very computationally expensive, so with current software ray tracers running on conventional, general-purpose processors, it takes a long time to create even a single image.

PURE uses specially designed processors providing raw performance to speed up the ray tracing process. ART VPS products are the only rendering solutions to hardware-accelerate ray traced rendering. PURE also enhances efficiency by assessing each frame for its ray depth requirements and adapting it for different areas of the image. PURE therefore produces images far faster than a software ray tracer, and with quality and realism far beyond anything achievable with any other renderer.

PURE truly mimics the way light behaves in the real world, while providing a simple user interface and delivering powerful processing performance.

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. PURE's lights are sizeable to become area lights, which provide light sources that naturally create soft shadows. Lights can have visible geometry, correctly simulating highlights in reflective materials. By default PURE's lights obey the inverse square law and so behave in a predictable and convincing manner.

As in the real world shadows cast by area lights soften and weaken the further they are from the shadow-casting object. PURE's lighting gives a natural and controllable result, enabling accurate and realistic representations of simple or complex lighting environments.

Use IES light fixtures within your scenes. PURE will simulate these fixtures accurately according to the manufacturers specification.

But it's not just direct lighting and physically accurate soft shadows that create a real lighting scheme. The ART VPS RP-SSI (Selective Secondary Illumination) shader delivers unique user-selective control of indirect illumination within a scene. Using PURE's powerful ray traced processing platform, you can now achieve soft and natural lighting, dramatic and moody lighting, or whatever lighting sheme you need.

PURE makes real world lighting simple to set up and easy to achieve.

PURE is fast. Real fast. Using hardware designed to accelerate physically-based rendering, PURE outperforms software-based ray tracing.

Rendering high resolution images for posters? No problem, PURE gives you the rendering performance to complete this efficiently.

Rendering animations? No problem, PURE is your render farm inside your workstation.

For comparison renderings with software rendering, see: Rendering Comparisons.

In addition to supporting the standard materials of the 3D application, and being compliant with the RenderMan Shading Language, PURE comes with a library of physically-based RenderCoat materials. These RenderCoat materials take a physical approach to sophisticated surface materials such as glass, ceramics, and metals and are tuned to take advantage of PURE's accelerated ray tracing architecture.

With the RenderCoat materials, a more accurate and realistic representation of a design can be created.

Create your own materials, lights and camera models. The RenderMan Shading Language is an open language that enables you to create your own rendering shaders. Originally developed by Pixar for its feature film projects, the RenderMan Language describes all of the properties of a 3D scene - model geometry, lighting, materials, camera, etc. PURE lets you create your own shaders to modify and extend the capabilities of the rendering engine.

Extensibility equals flexibility - and with PURE and its RenderMan Shading Language, you have full control.

In film and photography the camera plays a central role in the creation of great and appealing images. 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.

PURE recreates this set of tools accurately within your 3D application. Camera parameters have the same effects on depth of field and motion blur as in the real world. Lens flares are generated in the lens of the camera according to brightness values within the scene and a single render pass will generate lens effects quickly and according to real world parameters.

PURE's depth of field, calculated from the camera's properties, is based on physically real parameters, allowing highly intuitive camera control and accurate results.

Whether you are simulating the reflection of the sun over the sea, or analysing the new design of a car headlamp - PURE's physically-based lens effects will accurately portray the effect of bright light within the camera lens or eye lens.

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