This year the AIA show did not itself serve as a platform for major product introductions by larger software players. Therefore, we are going to start our AIA exhibit show floor reports by looking at several of the smaller developers first.
One of the highlights for me this year was spending time in the Rhino booth area. I absolutely applaud the way Robert McNeel & Associates utilized their space and time at this year’s AIA. For starters, the company set up several smaller stations and had numerous third-party Rhino developers show up and introduce their innovative plugin products. The effect of doing this was powerful. It created a larger sense of wonder and delight by just having more stuff to look at and explore. And it produced a clear sense that there is a Rhino eco-system of tools and options to choose from.
Secondly, the company pulled off one of the oldest tricks in the book to get people in their booth: they put in a strange and beautiful object. Last year at AIA SF the Orange Loft folks had a supercharged rocket powered VW Beetle in their booth. It worked! People were curious to see and touch it. In much the same manner, a beautiful and strange large object (one created in Rhino) drew people into the Rhino area.
Lastly, the Rhino folks had an Apple iPad application in their booth. The only one at the show as far as we are concerned. We will cover Rhino for the iPad and iPhone in a separate report but for now we want to turn our attention to MachStudio Core.
StudioGPU MachStudio Core
MachStudio Core for Rhino is a very cool new GPU-based rendering and non-linear editing system. I spoke to Tamir Barelia, Director of Business Development, of StudioGPU about the new software. He said his company was showing a technical preview and the product will be available soon.
MachStudio Core offers Rhino-based architects and designers a seamless way to create cinematic-quality 3D renderings and animations. Because it is a GPU-based renderer it is extremely fast and responsive, offering real-time high-fidelity views. Currently the product is only available for Windows but Barelia said that once the company rewrites the software using OpenCL (an open industry standard Apple created) it will pave the way for a native Mac platform version.
Some key features worth pointing out is that MachStudio Core is a 100 percent GPU-based renderer. The CPU does absolutely no work towards the final render. Barelia said their product is truly unique in this way but it does also compete with products like Luxion’s new KeyShot and Bunkspeed’s upcoming SHOT. And there is also New Zealand’s new Octane Render for Mac OS X which was released in April and also runs completely on the GPU.
MachStudio Core for Rhino is designed exclusively for Rhino software and offers a FastExport for Rhino and can automatically update the latest model from Rhino. Physically-based cameras provide settings and controls that mimic real-world cameras. You can export images directly into Adobe Photoshop while maintaining all render passes as independent, editable Photoshop layers–which is a really cool feature very useful to architectural rendering.
We look forward to seeing MachStudio Core for Rhino available on the Mac platform. In the meantime, check out more of the company’s technology and product information here: http://www.studiogpu.com/
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