Another video capture from Siggraph - this time of a very cool six monitor video wall demonstration using the Pixel Transit image generator from Blue Newt software, for a driving simulation. . Each display is driven by a FirePro V8750. The 3D rendering is synced up using the new FirePro S400 framelock card. The syncing is seamless. The visual demo of the lighting in the driving simulation is impressive.
This is the demo I have been waiting to see! It compares Maya 2009 running on a single FirePro V5700 to Maya 2009 running on two FirePro V5700s using the new CrossFire Pro drivers. The model being rotated has over 2 million triangles. Using the single FirePro card, the model rotates at about 70 fps. Using CrossFire Pro with two equivalent FirePro cards, the same model frame rate is about 110 fps - in other words, 50% scaling.
Twitter-style take away: Big gains in Maya performance using CrossFire Pro drivers on FirePro cards.
CrossFire lets you divert all the processing power in both cards to a single modeling window. 3DProfessor reviewed it technically but this is the first demonstration that I have actually seen.
Like Develop3D, I am a big supporter of MachStudio Pro and how it is shaking up the CG industry by using the GPU to move from a traditional linear, setup-preview-render workflow into a completely non-linear workflow with real-time control and feedback.
This year at SIGGRAPH, StudioGPU is showing off v1.2 of MachStudio Pro. Several significant enhancements in this new release:
Ships with a FirePro v8750 (previously shipped with a FireGL v8650). I am hearing reports of striking performance increases (as in doubled).
Real-time hardware-based geometry tessellation in conjunction with displacement maps for unbelievable surface details
Stereoscopic camera support for anaglyphic effects (see Pansy Warrior Princess for an example)
Cartoon shading - I assume for the previz and architectural crowd
Unlimited render passes to generate separate layers for later compositing in other apps like FCP or Shake (e.g. ambient occlusion, shadows, diffuse, specular, velocity maps, depth maps, glows, etc.)
Exporter for Maya, 3ds Max, ArchiCAD, SketchUp Pro, Rhino - with SolidWorks and Blender coming soon)
Another video from the SIGGRAPH show floor - showing off a demo of a hardware accelerated tessellation plug-in for Maya running on FirePro graphics accelerator.
Twitter-style take away: Using the hardware tesselation plug-in for Maya gives you incredible levels of detail and smoothness with performance. But really the video says it all and a lot more compellingly.
Last year I worked with student volunteers at SIGGRAPH to blog about what was happening at the show and in particular in the AMD booth. This year they are armed with video cameras.
Below is the first in the series of videos I am publishing. It is Adobe Premiere running on a 12-core AMD Istanbul processor and an ATI FirePro V7750 with the Stream encoding plug-in.
Twitter-style take away: Using a FirePro card and Stream plug-in, process an MPEG or H.264 to BlueRay in 1/4 of the time it would normally take. In other words if you have a 4 hour render, you can do that now in about an hour.
Received this videos from Siggraph and I found it hysterical. Everyone was hitting the Pixar booth at SIGGRAPH before 1PM for a chance to add to their collection of little Pixar Teapots. These things went fast. Love the guy who already has 5 or 6 of them. It’s a toy teapot that walks when cranked and came in a “special edition” tin.
The next evaluation has been published in the AMD “Reset Your Preconceptions” program for SolidWorks. This is a unique program where where active, professional SolidWorks users are sent a FirePro card to try out in their everyday working environment. Nothing is asked of them other then to share their experiences - be they good, bad, or indifferent.
As I’ve noted before, all of the benchmarks or reviews you read in online new sites are only one metric - one data point, when evaluating which graphics accelerator is right for you. The real test comes when cards are evaluated in real working environments - without any restrictions or marketing spin control. That is the goal of the Reset Your Preconceptions program.
The latest reviewer to publish is SolidWorks user Richard Williams. Below is a summary from his post:
”…/… Whether it was movements or animations, dark or bright, multi-colored or plain, reflective or direct lighting, it just could not have been better or smoother in this writer’s opinion. Nothing I did was jumpy at all and it didn’t stall even once. I now know what my next graphics card is going to be, so it can do all those things I know that are possible now. I will give it my stamp of approval here and I know it beats anything we have here in the home lab right now. I knew the ATI people would not send us out a system unless they were pretty confident about it and now I am. Bye for now.”
This makes the forth reviewer to write up their experiences. The full list to date is:
I’ve said it before, but this kind of real world testing is what I wish more companies would actually do. Everyone always spins things in their press release benchmarks, picking out the tests that are strongest for their cards. This ‘no-constraints on the user’ program by AMD is the kind of thing we need to see more of, so we can make more informed decisions. In the future I would love to see the CrossFire Pro tested like this real world environments by real users.
I’m generally not a consumer products follower however I recently saw an ATIFirePro twitter post about the Siggraph Production Session Talk Eye-Definition Computing and the Future of Digital Actors, this coming Monday at 3:45PM. So I went to do some research on the presenters and how they all might relate to each other - Jules Urbach from OTOY, Hollywood director Peter Berg (the upcoming remake of “Dune”), and top AMD executive Rick Bergman.
The official blurb reads: Hear these collaborators discuss some of the ground-breaking advances in hardware and software that enables sophisticated real-time rendering techniques and new delivery models, and forthcoming client and server hardware that has the potential to put the equivalent of a Hollywood render farm in a home set-top box.
But with a little research I came up with this post on TechCrunch referring to high-powered server-side rendering for real-time visualization and gaming delivered to ordinary mortals using any client device through the browser - such as your set top box, your iPhone, your laptop or desktop - at 60 FPS.
No clue if this is what will be shown, but if it is, this is a session not to be missed (also if Rick Bergan is showing up this is probably pretty significant to attend). The video below is not a marketing demo, but from a skeptical Tech Crunch writer playing Grand Theft Auto on his computer, through his browser.
The “Get more Oomph” promotional page also highlights the two tech talks on GPU-Accelerated Production Rendering and Next Generation Graphics: the Hardware and the APIs, both with a sweepstakes chance to win FirePro cards.
ATIFirePro Twitter Handle - A quick an easy way to follow what is going on regarding the contest, what is cool at Siggraph, and what is new in the AMD Booth #2417
SIGGRAPH 2009 is just around the corner (Aug 3-7). Last year we asked a bunch of students to roam the show floor and report back on what they thought was interesting. This year several of us will be at the 2009 show and we want to know if there is anything in particular you would like us to report back on or try to video. If you have any ideas please submit them as comments.:
If you use Twitter follow happenings from the show floor by signing up for the ATIFirePro Twitter Feed
Demos: In the AMD booth I only know of one confirmed demo so far: MachStudio Pro
If there are specific topics that you want to follow, let us know. This could be anything from stereo 3D, to the latest multi-core CPUs. Give us feedback so we know where to deploy!
FireUser.com is a community resource for CAD, visualization, 3D, video and engineering professionals to learn about the latest acceleration and display technologies and news with a focus on the AMD FirePro workstation graphics line.
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