MachStudio Pro is the real deal

Well, I have to say that I'm thoroughly impressed with MachStudio Pro (or MSP for short). I made a previous post about this technology on my blog earlier this year and got some great feedback via the comments. One blogger (tomacmuni) made a very interesting comment about MSP and other technologies that I wanted to address.

Quote from tomacuni: "Machstudio is graphics card based and you get the so-called partnership ATI provided card to make sure that it works well.
You can't buy the software without the card - I asked. They said no.
Presumably your computer itself will also contribute to how well that performs.

I asked myself, to what extent might it be the graphics card that boosts the render time, as opposed to the software?

Vray RT is CPU based -- without a networked suite of *up to to 10* slave processors for instance, from what I can tell it's not going to be that helpful for acceleration.
....
I'm not sure, but Artlantis seems to be a kind of intentionally optimised renderer, using simple material presets and simple render settings that look at best adequate ... a bit like Vray with 'low' quality sampling. I haven't seen high quality rendering from it."

The ATI card (or GPU for short) does all the heavy lifting when it comes to rendering the image. Your computer specs need to be able to support the ATI card, but do little else when it comes to pushing the limits of MSP. MSP is coded/written to take advantage of the processing power of the GPU. None of the other softwares you mentioned do that to my knowledge. The ATI V8750 has 800 cores to process data. 800!!! The unfortunate reality is that most applications today have not been written to take advantage of the GPU and its processing power. How many CPU's can you link together for VRAY's RT technology - ten? Alright, so then what? After you link them together and preview your render in the viewport, are you able to save that image or can you output it to a full HD image plate without having to render and use a render farm? As for Artlantis, I have yet to see high quality renders, much less renders completed as fast as what MSP can do set to full high quality.

Quote from tomacuni: "For actually rendering, Maxwell and Machstudio Pro send out content for rendering to an external application."

Vray and Mental ray do this too - its just transparent to the user. As far as I have been able to tell, MSP does not send anything out to an external application for rendering - it is all done in the same interface with the same program and nothing needs to be translated (another one of the problems with mental ray or vray).

Quote from tomacuni: "It seems to be that these render 'solutions' may mark the fin de siècle of standard renderer software given they're based on technology that's aging fast. It seems there's a looming shift in approaches to rendering. I wonder in two or so years which of these 'new' renderers will attract the larger user base.
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I'm a 3DSMax user mainly, so
I wonder if, at some point, 3DSMax itself may ship with some kind of 'real time' rendering technology which simply eclipses all the tools commented on here. A few years ago I guess that's what the incorporation of mentalray aimed to do."

I come from a background mostly utilizing 3ds MAX too. I look forward to seeing which technology will attract a larger user base as well. If Autodesk has an ounce of smarts in their R&D team, they are already looking at how their products can take advantage of the GPU to increase render times. I know a couple products already do but it will likely take time for a company the size of Autodesk to move it into production for 3ds MAX and Maya (I hope I'm wrong on that though).

3D World magazine recently had a review from Dan Alban of AGA Studios published and gives yet another testimony to MSP. I personally am just starting to get my feet wet with MSP and how it can integrate with Architectural Design Visualization workflows. There have been some great studies done already on StudioGPU's website. In the image that was posted to this blog post, can you tell which was done with MSP or VRAY? There are some great examples done on their site as well that incorporate Architectural Design Visualization use of MSP. If you want to get more discussion on what MSP can do in this regards, there is a great discussion thread already unfolding on their forums.

Yes, this might be a brand new technology, but the potential is so big, I can't imagine this technology sitting idle - I see it advancing further very rapidly. I love the feedback this technology has prompted - I hope this post will spark further interest!

Newport

Holy crap - Autodesk is screwing with my brain BIG time now. I sat through the general session this morning at Autodesk University. It focused on where they see design technology heading and potential uses for it. One thing they showed cased was prototyping a new hybrid sports car. Everything was done completely digital - from design to engineering to production - all without the cost of building a single physical prototype. The next one showcased design firm that is designing the next telescope that is to be the world's largest at 30 meters! They are building the entire design in Autodesk Inventor which will allow them to coordinate how many materials they will need for building the project to showing the astronomers how their equipment will interface with the structure holding the mirror and lens.

However, the creme de la creme happened last. They highlighted how an Architect might utilize Autodesk applications in designing a new library for a civic center in a metropolitan setting. They started using Maya to design a funky looking sculpture which invoked a sense of fabric flowing in the breeze. They took that and other designs into Revit and built a model of the building. Then they shared the building model with the structural engineer that designed the structure of the building and analyzed the structural members of it using Robot Millennium to check for the capacity of the members being used to support based on the stresses generated. They also shared the model with the MEP consultants for them to design the support systems for the building. hey also coordinated with the Civil engineering team to see their design in the context in which it would be built. Then they proceeded to dump all this data into Navisworks to run collision detection to ensure that the Architecture, Structural and MEP data did not hit any road blocks and helped coordinate a list of everything that needed to be addressed. They also used Navisworks to help the construction team see the different phases of the project and how the building would come together.

To put the icing on the cake, they followed it with a design visualization of the building in context using a new program called Newport. This is the first I've heard of it and I will have to add that they closed the general session saying that some technology is not ready for public release - meaning Newport is either in Alpha or Beta testing right now - hmmm.... Anyways, they were able to coordinate the Revit model much better in a 3D Realistic rendering than can currently be done - and much smoother. Autodesk said they have really been stressing having all their products work seamlessly together.

For the cherry on top, they put all this data into something that looked like Google Earth and did a realtime fly by simulation from outer space down to the project site with the building and all its related data in place. They showed different pieces of the data live on the set - something which is much better demonstrated live as opposed to writing it out. I recorded the demo and will post live to youtube later tonight somehow and link to my blog. You're gonna love this!

*edit* Here is the link to the video I took and posted to you tube.
Click me!