Previews New Features and Performance Improvements of MachStudio Pro 1.2 and Announces Bundle of New AMD ATI FirePro V8750 3D Workstation Graphics Accelerator

StudioGPU is showcasing at SIGGRAPH 2009 the powerful next-generation features and performance benefits of MachStudio™ Pro on the all new, industry-leading AMD ATI FirePro™ V8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator. MachStudio Pro provides a seamless way to create and interact with cinematic 3D objects and environments in a non-linear workspace, leveraging the horsepower of off-the-shelf professional graphics processing units (GPUs) to deliver real-time and near real-time workflow performance on a desktop workstation.

The MachStudio Pro workflow is akin to a virtual 3D real-time studio environment, allowing artists, designers, engineers, directors, and technical directors (TDs) to work with lighting, camera views and multi-point perspectives for a real-time view of frames as they will appear in the final rendered format. Users can easily manage and interact with complex lighting, caustics, cameras, shaders, materials, ambient occlusion, and color grading for real-time shot finaling and compositing.

Visit StudioGPU in the AMD booth (#2417), at SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans, August 4-6 to see the next-generation MachStudio Pro features, including:

– Displacement Mapping Using Hardware Tessellation, exclusively on qualified ATI graphics workstation accelerators: Offers real-time hardware-based geometry tessellation in conjunction with displacement maps, allowing for unbelievable surface detail in 3D models while also reducing render times. By utilizing the tessellation library included with ATI 3D workstation graphics accelerators, MachStudio Pro can even create sub-pixel geometry tessellation, allowing for greater efficiency and better control over surface geometry. Leveraging the immense power of the ATI graphics accelerators, MachStudio Pro can actually increase the polygon count exponentially, in some cases to more than one billion polygons, without any material drop in the render speed.

– Stereoscopic Camera Support: Create anaglyphic effects with customizable eyeglass color schemes for 3D stereoscopic effects in less time.

– Cartoon Shader: Custom shader allows for cartoon-style color fills and outline rendering.

– Custom Configurable Anti-Aliasing: Choose from a variety of anti-aliasing algorithms to achieve the highest quality results for the desired look and feel.

– Unlimited Independent Render Passes and Render Layers: Create an unlimited number of independent render passes such as ambient occlusion, shadows, diffuse, specular, velocity maps, depth maps, and glows for use in compositing and third-party software. Furthermore, generate custom defined render layers with exactly the elements and render passes desired.

– Open EXR File Format Support: Write image files in the OpenEXR format, an HDR image file format developed by Industrial Light & Magic that includes features such as increased HDR (32-bit) and color precision, which is designed to simplify the compositing process.

– Floating-Point Velocity Maps: Use vector-based velocity passes to generate velocity maps and create motion blur in post-production.

– Support for 64-bit Operating Systems: Allows MachStudio Pro to run in a native 64-bit environment and utilize more system RAM over the standard 3 GB limit of 32-bit operating systems for substantial speed and performance improvements.

With MachStudio Pro powered by the new ATI FirePro V8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator, render times can be dramatically reduced from hours to minutes and minutes to seconds or sub-seconds. Performance tests supplied by AMD reveal that MachStudio Pro can render projects 196% faster on the new ATI FirePro V8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator than with the previous generation ATI 3D workstation graphics accelerator. MachStudio Pro now performs at rates of more than 900 times faster than traditional rendering packages.

“The powerful new features of MachStudio Pro 1.2 take full advantage of the recently announced ultra high-end AMD ATI FirePro V8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator, allowing users to streamline 3D creation workflow in ways that, until now, were seemingly impossible,” said David Koenig, president and CEO, StudioGPU. “By tapping into the ATI hardware-based geometry tessellation library, we can deliver unbelievable quality with lightning-fast rendering performance. This is only one example of many features, once exclusive to only the biggest budget productions that we have opened up to creative 3D professionals everywhere.”

“The compelling new features of MachStudio Pro 1.2 are well suited for the unparalleled performance of the new ATI FirePro V8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator,” said Janet Matsuda, senior director, AMD Professional Graphics. “The groundbreaking technology advances that the StudioGPU team consistently delivers continue to turn the industry upside down in ways that greatly benefit 3D artists and consumers everywhere.”

A complete out-of-box high-performance solution, MachStudio Pro now ships with the all-new AMD ATI FireProV8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator card, the industry’s most powerful and highest memory bandwidth workstation graphics offering.* The AMD ATI FireProV8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator card features 2 GB GDDR5 memory, 800 shader units and 115 GB/s memory bandwidth.

Supporting a wide range of industries-from computer-aided design (CAD) visualization and 3D animation to top-quality film and broadcast projects-MachStudio Pro offers seamless interoperability with leading professional 3D modeling, animation, and 3D CAD software packages. For a complete list of MachStudio Pro features, product overview videos and related software and hardware requirements, please visit www.studiogpu.com.

Pricing and Purchasing Information

MachStudio Pro supports Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista operating systems, and comes standard with an AMD ATI FirePro V8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator card. The special introductory price of MachStudio Pro is $4,999 (USD MSRP), which includes one year of technical support and product maintenance updates. All MachStudio Pro customers will receive the MachStudio Pro 1.2 software upgrade at no charge upon product availability in Q3 2009. Education and volume licensing is also available upon request. For more information about MachStudio Pro or to locate a reseller, please visit the StudioGPU web site at www.studiogpu.com.

“Pairing Real-Time Performance with Cinematic-Quality Rendering Empowers CG Artists Everywhere to Work at the Speed of Thought,” an industry white paper by Alex Herrera, senior analyst with Jon Peddie Research and author of the JPR Workstation Report series, provides detailed information about the many benefits of MachStudio Pro, including how it leverages the GPU for real-time 3D workflow and rendering. Download the white paper at www.studiogpu.com/whitepaper.

About StudioGPU

StudioGPU develops software and technology that frees digital artists from the creative shackles of time, money and resources. Founded by a group of 3D computer artists and engineers interested in improving the 3D-production pipeline, the company’s flagship product, MachStudio Pro, harnesses the power of professional graphics processing units (GPUs) for real-time workflow and rendering. A standalone application with seamless support for popular modeling and animation packages, MachStudio Pro empowers artists and designers working in film, broadcast, game development, computer-assisted design (CAD), and pre- and postproduction to create and manipulate fully rendered film-quality 3D design and animation in real-time. StudioGPU is headquartered in Hollywood, Calif. For more information, visit www.studiogpu.com.