VizWorld.com

Click for Fullsize

Render Rocket, purveyor of a nice cloud-based rendering service with an impressive web-based control panel, is releasing the newest version of their product Mission Control at SIGGRAPH2011 next week.  But that’s not all, they’ve seen such high demand for their services that they’ve boosted their cloud power, adding more capabilities and dropping rendertimes even lower.

“Rendering in film and design is becoming more and more data intensive,” said John Morales, COO of Render Rocket. “Working with our technology partners, we’ve increased our storage capacity five-fold since last year. Our service platform is more robust and more secure, with stronger file security and system redundancy. This enables us to take on render jobs from single users and massive film studios alike, without any adverse affects on our system.”

The new version also boasts a nice development API, allowing studios and software developers to link RenderRocket right into their applications for automated processing.

Get all the details after the break.

Read more…

Science cloud, renderrocket

We represent several online publications looking for online advertising sales reps. Some sales experience required – but more importantly is a comfort with cold calling on companies. We need someone to build some email and phone campaigns and pitch them with creativity and passion. We’ll point you to the right companies – your job will be to find the right contacts and introduce them to the publications and pitch them on advertising. These are pretty simple, straightforward sales. Compensation is commission only – but a very good commission. You work your own hours – from your own home or office. Candidate needs excellent email and phone skills as well as basic Internet search skills. Potential to represent multiple publications translates to increased income.

Interested?

Send us your pitch. Send a letter introducing yourself. Tell us what you have been doing the past several years, why you think you are a good candidate for this type of position, and why you want this job.

Email letter to [email protected]

Graphics, Hardware, Science, Website

It was about a year ago when we first brought you the news of “Euclideon Geometry’s Unlimited Detail Real-time Rendering engine all based on Voxel-rendering.  Haven’t heard much from then but now they’re back with another video showcasing their engine and some information.

Hi everyone. We’ve been working very hard and we hope you like what we’ve made. This is just our 1 year report, after which we will probably go quiet again while we finish our work. This demo only shows what was ready at the time, we have a lot of really good stuff here but we are keeping it secret for now. (Yes grumpy forum people, we do have animation, but you’ll just have to be patient.)

I wouldn’t have paid much attention to it, until I saw Notch (Creator of MineCraft) discussing it.  He saw the same thing I originally noticed:

In the video, you can make up loads of repeated structured, all roughly the same size. Sparse voxel octrees work great for this, as you don’t need to have unique data in each leaf node, but can reference the same data repeatedly (at fixed intervals) with great speed and memory efficiency. This explains how they can have that much data, but it also shows one of the biggest weaknesses of their engine.

The technology is interesting yes, but I still think there is a lot of smoke-and-mirrors in their presentation.  They’re heavily constrained by memory limits so the bulk of their demonstrations rely on heavily tiled space making it nothing but referencing to a single memory block.  Trying to do this for anything unique is going to hit the memory wall really quick, as mentioned in this other post by Notch:

* One byte per voxel is way lower than the raw data you’d need. In reality, you’d probably want to track at least 24 bits of color and eight bits of normal vector data per voxel. That’s four times as much data. It’s quite possible you’d want to track even more data.
* If the data compresses down to 1%, it would still be 1 700 three-terrabyte hard drives of data at one byte of raw data per voxel.

All that said, watch the video and decide for yourself.  Fact, or Fiction?

‪Unlimited Detail Real-Time Rendering Technology Preview 2011 [HD]‬‏ – YouTube.

Science algorithm, euclideon, voxel

In case you’re thinking that Cloud Computing is something just for companies, well, guess again. If you use Social Media, you are already part of the “Cloud Ecosystem”, as we can see on Imogo‘s infographic. Our selection continues wit a couple of looks at the adoption of Cloud Computing in enterprises, from the folks at Social Cast, Formstack and Chargify, and , finally, the Virtual Edge Institute shows us the potential of the Virtual Environment Market.

Read more…

Graphics, Science design, infographic, infoviz, Visual Loop, visualizations

In a totally unexpected move (unexpected by me anyway), Autodesk has just bought online website Instructables.com for an undisclosed sum.  This looks to be a move to further Autodesk’s use in the home CAD industry currently owned by other lower-cost, and typically less feature rich, alternatives.

In today’s press release announcing the purchase, Autodesk says it believes Instructables will introduce its existing customers “to a thriving community of like-minded, smart individuals, with whom they can learn and share their personal inspiration or hobbies.” In turn, it sees existing Instructables members benefiting from (i.e., buying) Autodesk’s wide variety of design tools.

It kinda makes sense, if Autodesk could release something like 3dsMax or Autocad “lite” targeted at these home hobby designers and didn’t cost the hundreds or thousands of dollars.

via GraphicSpeak » Autodesk buys a DIY online recipe book.

Graphics autodesk

Another software announcement the week before SIGGRAPH, this time NewTek has announced the immediate availability of LightWave 10.1 boasting a new Viewport Preview Rendering and lots of new stereoscopic camera features.  In addition, they’ve got a big new customer to talk about in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Terra Nova”.

“We’re using LightWave 10.1 for everything – from lighting and shading, to working on material from other pieces of software, as well as just producing everything in it – from start to finish,” explained John F. K. Parenteau, managing producer at Pixomondo Los Angeles. Pixomondo is currently using LightWave in the creation of Steven Spielberg’s new TV series Terra Nova, slated to premiere this fall. “LightWave provides a very fast turnaround for us. It has become a great tool, particularly with its new capabilities,” said Parenteau.

via NewTek Releases LightWave 10.1 | Below the Line.

Graphics lightwave, newtek

Next week at SIGGRAPH, Lightworks will be on hand showing off the latest version of Artisan and talking about their new partnership with Imagination Technologies for use of Brazil for Developers.

Lightworks will be focusing on their Lightworks Artisan product at Siggraph, the company’s next generation product which is built on the culmination of over 20 years experience within the CAD industry.  Lightworks Artisan offers a completely new approach and tools for the creation of high quality images of a virtual product or building whilst is it still being designed.  Visitors to the Lightworks booth will be able to see SnapShots in action as well as previewing future Lightworks Artisan product features.

In addition, they’ll be showing off the work of 2 valued customers: IMSI/Design showing Renditioner, and Corel showing CorelCAD.

via Lightworks participates in first Canadian Siggraph Exhibition.

Graphics lightworks, siggraph

It’s been a while coming, but NaturalPoint is now shipping the new OptiTrack V120:Duo and V120:Trio tracking bars.  IF you havne’t seen these bars, they’re a great IR-based motion tracking solution that combines an extra camera for capturing real field vision, making it a great tool for augmented reality uses where you can track objects in 3D and then overlay them onto live video, all captured from the same piece of equipment.

“We utilize motion tracking as a tool for interacting with complex 3D objects in our immersive visualization systems,” said Julien Berta, vice president of Technology and Innovation at Mechdyne Corporation®, and an early adopter of OptiTrack’s tracking bar technology. “The OptiTrack tracking bars are ideal for our needs as we integrate head, joystick and glove tracking into our systems, all of which require precise, low-latency data to ensure a natural experience.”

The new system is one of the most exciting motion tracking systems available, and you can get it noe for $1,899 or $2,499 complete with tracking software and compatibility with OptiTrack’s other systems like the Insight VCS.

Get all the details after the break.

Read more…

Hardware motion tracking, naturalpoint, optitrack

Our selection about Cloud Computing begins today with RackSpace‘s look at the evolution from USB to Cloud Storage. After that, Cloud Tweaks, Cloud Hypermarket and Wikibon present us with some more stats and figures about the current state of this technology, and some trends for the major players in the industry.

Read more…

Graphics, Science design, infographic, infoviz, Visual Loop, visualizations

It’s been 2 years since we first showed you guys this, but with the recent discussions at the US Capital, it seems now is a great time to pick it up again.  Check out the “US Debt Clock” For a real-time animated view of the US Deficit and Revenue, and all the other numbers associated with it.

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time.

Graphics debt, federal, finance, government