Massive Software Supports GPU–Accelerated Rendering

Huge–Scale Massive Scenes Can Now Be Rendered 30 Times Faster at Film Quality on Graphics Processing Boards

Wednesday 27 July 2005

Massive Software announced today graphics processing unit–accelerated rendering for Massive, the company’s Academy Award–winning autonomous agent 3D animation system. GPU–accelerated rendering support in Massive, now available for use with products including NVIDIA Quadro graphics boards, enables visual effects artists to render huge–scale Massive shots at film quality without a render farm.

Large facilities can maximize the new GPU–accelerated rendering to free up rendering resources and produce Massive simulations with astounding quality and speed. For the first time, visual effects studios of any size have the capability to use Massive and render out large–scale Massive scenes – using their typical production setups.

"Massive already has one of the most efficient production–proven render pipelines. Now we’ve made it 30 times faster, and you can do film–level quality using a graphics board most visual effects artists or animators already have installed," said Stephen Regelous, Founder and Product Manager, Massive Software. "Massive is currently running on a variety of popular boards from NVIDIA and we feel GPU–accelerated rendering will be a terrific addition to our current capabilities in RenderMan, 3Delight, Air and, soon to be added, Mental Ray."

"GPU–accelerated rendering delivers speed, quality and efficiency and is already the norm for a wide variety of visual effects and animation needs," commented Jeff Brown, general manager for NVIDIA professional products. "With its AI–based simulation, Massive is among the most unique and powerful applications in our industry. Now complex crowd scenes and closer foreground scenarios can be rendered on the GPU with amazing results."

GPU–accelerated rendering support in Massive operates with OpenGL solutions, currently including high–end NVIDIA Quadro FX solutions (NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000 or higher). These NVIDIA Quadro FX products deliver up to 512MB frame buffer memory, up to 35.2GB/s memory bandwidth, 256–bit memory interface and support for ultra high–resolution panels up to 3840x2400.

New rendering alternatives for Massive in the effects and animation industry will be demonstrated at SIGGRAPH 2005, August 2–4, in Los Angeles at the Massive Software/New Zealand Booth #1346 and NVIDIA Booth #1714.

About Massive Software

Springing into existence to help artists solve real–world production needs on The Lord of the Rings films, Massive Software is the leading developer of artificial intelligence–based 3D animation systems, and the only proven commercial system for feature film. Massive was founded when Stephen Regelous programmed a unique piece of software for director Peter Jackson to make creation of complicated visual effects scenes involving hundreds of thousands of digital characters a practical reality.

Now a standalone, commercially available product, Massive is used by leading digital production and effects studios including Weta Digital, The Mill, Animal Logic, Rhythm & Hues and Digital Domain. In 2004, Massive was honored with a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and with a Technical Innovation Award at the 3D Awards in Copenhagen

For more information, please contact Massive North America (+1 310 837 7878), New Zealand (+64 9 3030 030), Europe (+44 20 7096 1605) or visit www.massivesoftware.com.