LOS ANGELES — Imagination Technologies (www.imgtec.com) has introduced the Caustic Visualizer viewport plug-in for Autodesk Maya 2013. The software offers interactive full-frame performance on the new PowerVR low-power ray tracing hardware reference platform.
The Caustic Visualizer family improves the performance and functionality of the interactive visual look development process by making ray-traced photorealistic rendering, from the start, an integral part of the content creation workflow. The solution is built entirely on the Imagination PowerVR OpenRL platform. Through OpenRL’s optimized CPU implementation, Caustic Visualizer can deliver an interactive photorealistic viewport experience on a CPU-only desktop that was previously only possible on solutions based on expensive quad-GPU hardware configurations.
When coupled with OpenRL running on the new PowerVR ray-tracing hardware reference platform, Caustic’s Visualizer software can deliver true full-frame (1024x1024) resolution imagery up to 15 photorealistic frames per second, without the need to de-res the image or add significant noise during interaction.
“Visualizer delivers great performance on a CPU, but with OpenRL capable hardware acceleration,” says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination. “Shown at SIGGRAPH as a licensable reference design, it is nothing less than ground-breaking.”
Caustic Visualizer gives artists a new way to interact with content created in Maya, using an interactive, fully ray traced viewport, complete with accurate global illumination, shadows and reflections. By providing users with high-quality realtime visual feedback from the earliest stages of modeling, potential issues with the look of a scene can be identified and resolved much earlier in production, minimizing the need for time-consuming preview renders.
Developed using Imagination’s PowerVR Brazil SDK and fully utilizing Imagination’s PowerVR OpenRL ray-tracing API, Caustic Visualizer plug-ins are designed to offer complete platform independence — so no matter what operating system or hardware configuration an artist uses, these plug-ins will provide a consistent, high quality, easy to use interface and workflow. Caustic Visualizer for Maya 2013 is now available to users as a free download via the company's open beta program.