As the first step in what it calls a development initiative, Alias is making a 64-bit version of mental ray 3.4 Standalone available for Maya 6.5. The 64-bit operating-system architecture provides greater computing power and access to more than 2 GB of memory, allowing more complex scenes and images to be rendered faster and at higher quality.
“This is an important first step in our efforts to deliver a new Maya-based product that will exploit the capabilities of 64-bit hardware. An alpha version is currently being tested by several leading production houses,” explains Kevin Tureski, director of engineering for Maya at Alias.
Alias says the delivery of mental ray Standalone 64-bit and the continuing adaptation of Maya to 64-bit architecture are central to its development work. The company is pursuing these efforts in cooperation with customers and industry partners including HP, Microsoft, Red Hat, Intel and AMD.
Alias mental ray Standalone uses the expanded resources of 64-bit hardware. Rolf Herken, CEO and CTO of mental images, says the additional addressable memory can provide a dramatic acceleration, particularly when calculating large scenes: “This can mean a speed increase of up to one hundred times compared with 32-bit machines. Rendering effects such as global illumination for scenes containing several hundred million triangles can then take only minutes on machines with two or four processors and 8 to 16 GB of memory, rather than days as before. We expect this to make virtual cinematography a practical reality.”
Alongside precise, fast rendering of very large scenes, production houses can use the extensive programmability of the 64-bit version of mental ray Standalone to write custom shaders and create the required rendering effects. Physically correct global-illumination lighting allows lighting effects, indirect lighting, light focusing, translucency, glossy reflections and radiosity to be generated and combined automatically.
mental ray 64-bit Standalone is available now for Linux through the Alias Online Store and authorised resellers. The price, including one year of maintenance, is €1,950 excluding VAT. The 64-bit edition runs on Enterprise Linux WS 3 (x86_64) and SUSE 9.1 (x86_64) with Intel EM64T, AMD Opteron or AMD Athlon 64 processors. A Windows XP version is still under development.
