Virtual Reality is fairly commonplace in the automotive industry, but Citroen wanted to revamp their existing facilities with something more modern and powerful. Nvidia and Scalable Graphics managed to merge up some Holobench displays, Quadro workstations, and some graphics magic to create a new cutting-edge solution detailed on NVidia’s blog.
A cluster of 20 workstations using NVIDIA Quadro FX5800 GPUs drives the PSA VR system. Previously, compute resources would be assigned to one of the three projection systems. But with resource pooling, those workstations can be switched to feed another display, increasing performance and improving the immersive experience. For instance, if the Holobench projection system isn’t in use, its workstations can be assigned to the Cave, rather than sitting idle.
Seac02 has a new video up demonstrating some of their own new Augmented Reality technology, this time in viewing automotive interiors interactively.
what about discovering new car interiors using augmented reality, now you can! In the video below we use our Eligo SDK to explore the interior of the car. Realtime object tracking is made using a Dualcore notebook with a standard webcam.
The framerate’s a bit slow, but impressive for nothing but a dualcore notebook.
The newest ads for the Lexus CT200h premium hybrid show the car driving through unbelievable terrains that can only exist in the world of CG. However, you may not know that the ads are created through the use of some new software created by Dan Abrams.
Lexus is announcing a new series of ads for its all-new CT-2000h premium hybrid today. The ads further push the creative envelope of CG technology, thanks, in part, to new custom software created by Hollywood visual effects wizard, Dan Abrams (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Aviator”, “Spiderman” and “Spiderman 2”). This is the first time that Abrams’ technology has been used in a feature film or commercial.
Working with Lexus’ African American and urban market agency, walton|isaacson (http://www.waltonisaacson.com), Abrams was able to help create heart-stopping images that can compete visually with the current crop of Hollywood blockbusters. Abrams’ new technology also pushed the envelope in terms of client and user-friendly, as Lexus was able to see and approve renderings far earlier in the process—always vital with the quick turnarounds required in the ad world. The entire process made for a photo realistic car that stood up to the exacting standards of the company. Real footage was also used in the commercial.
Porsche, makers of high-end sports cars famous around the world, has teamed up with Designboom and the Scuolo Politecnica di Design in Milan, Italy to offer a full scholarship to one lucky designer in the ‘Radically Porsche’ contest.
PORSCHE S.P.A. Italy (the Italian subsidiary of the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer), invites you to submit your innovative and original pattern designs for the PORSCHE CAYMAN model range that enhance the visual appeal of the sports vehicle.
We want to be surprised by your refined ‘all-over’ designs, repeating or non repeating patterns, whose motifs will translate well into a design covering the entirety of a PORSCHE CAYMAN car.
From January 10th – 31st, 2011, designboom.com readers will select the top four designs from the shortlisted entries. Winners from this first selection will have their designs translated onto the PORSCHE CAYMAN model range sports cars.
Then from February 20th to march 30th, 2011, designboom.com readers will vote to determine the overall winner among the four patterned PORSCHE CAYMAN cars. The designer of the highest ranking submission, who fulfills the guidelines of applying for a masters degree at the Scuola Politecnica di Design, Milan, Italy, will be offered a full paid scholarship for a masters degree in visual design in collaboration with the Scuola Politecnica di Design. the program will start on October 11th, 2011
Even if you’re not interested in the scholarship, you get the chance to see your design translated into a real car if you are one of the top 4 ranking designs. Get the full details at the contest website linked below.
The new Bentley, the 200,000 £ Mulsanne, will be Bentley’s first foray into fully digital modeling and design as the car was entirely modeled in Dassault Systemes PLM software before a single bolt was ordered. It was done as part of an initiative to reduce physical revisions which take a lot of time and money to fabricate, only to find minor glitches requiring extensive rework. Working in the digital space had other advantages such as working better with a distributed team (it’s alot easier to email model files than ship physical parts), as well as providing extensive product lifecycle management functions.
Ian Swann, who was in charge of the virtual build, said it changed the way people worked, not least because it prompted Bentley to spend €27m on new kit and to revise its factory layout so that there was less physical distance between the different teams. This physical proximity has improved communication between the teams.
“We had a lot of review meetings,” he said. “At first the production guys were sceptical, but when they saw that it was going to make their lives easier, they jumped in.”
Watch the video below showing the Dassault model of one of the headlight assemblies.
Maurice Panisch has a fondness for high-end cars and spends his time turning his skills into beautiful CG renderings that are indistinguishable from real photographs.
Check out his amazing portfolio for some incredible images.
At the 59th annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Nissan was to unveil the 2011 Infiniti M concept. However, the car wasn’t ready? Rather than admit defeat or resort to renderings and “death by powerpoint”, instead they reached out to RTT and the Klip Collective to create a visually stunning presentation.
The result was a simple block of styrofoam presented on stage, cut out to the exact dimensions of the proposed car. Then, five synchronized projectors displayed the image of the car and the environment on it in a photorealistic way, to create the illusion of the car not only being on-stage, but arising from various environmental aspects and then driving.
See the video of the unveiling above, and read more in this press release.
Ford is using the same motion-capture technology used by Hollywood (in films like Avatar) to track human movements inside virtual cars, allowing them to better analyze human motion and design cars around it while avoiding expensive physical prototypes.
“This technology enables us to evaluate many vehicle exterior and interior alternatives in a virtual environment from any location — in the driver’s seat or hundreds of feet away from the vehicle – with animated characters and vehicles,” said Elizabeth Baron, a technical specialist in Virtual Reality and Advanced Visualization at Ford.
One room in the lab projects images onto three walls and the ceiling, producing interiors and exteriors at actual scale. If this technology really makes developing vehicles easier and less expensive, look for Ford to use it even more over the next couple years as it continues its drive to return to profitability by 2011.
The new commercial for the Mazda5 was created with help from Rhino with significant help from some previsualization technology. Proving that sometimes CG isn’t the best solution, they struck a good balance between real props and CG to get the perfect combination.
In order to exactly fulfill the director’s and the agency’s vision, Sharabani invested an incredible amount of time in pre-vis to determine which elements should be created with CG and which should be made with more traditional methods. The high tech garage, for example, with its stainless steel cylinders, light fixtures, shelves, and flatscreen monitors, is built of real props, while the ceiling, which retracts to allow a giant claw to descend and remove the car’s entire body, is CG.
When people think of Virtual Reality they immediately imagine seeing a virtual world full of sights and sensations not available in reality, but they almost never think of the sound. Ford has found a new use for Virtual Reality in using it to create the “Virtual Vehicle Sound Simulator” to test out various automotive noises on future prototype cars.
“We create an array of 76 different simulated sounds from data gathered about the proposed vehicle,” said Clapper. “We consider body shape and powertrain design under various road conditions and speeds. When we drive the simulator, it’s amazing how we’re able to recognize sounds with our ears that we would have never picked up otherwise from that mountain of data.”
Seac02 has a new video up demonstrating some of their own new Augmented Reality technology, this time in viewing automotive interiors interactively.
The newest ads for the Lexus CT200h premium hybrid show the car driving through unbelievable terrains that can only exist in the world of CG. However, you may not know that the ads are created through the use of some new software created by Dan Abrams.
Porsche, makers of high-end sports cars famous around the world, has teamed up with Designboom and the 
The new Bentley, the 200,000 £ Mulsanne, will be Bentley’s first foray into fully digital modeling and design as the car was entirely modeled in Dassault Systemes PLM software before a single bolt was ordered. It was done as part of an initiative to reduce physical revisions which take a lot of time and money to fabricate, only to find minor glitches requiring extensive rework. Working in the digital space had other advantages such as working better with a distributed team (it’s alot easier to email model files than ship physical parts), as well as providing extensive product lifecycle management functions.
Maurice Panisch has a fondness for high-end cars and spends his time turning his skills into beautiful CG renderings that are indistinguishable from real photographs.
The new commercial for the Mazda5 was created with help from Rhino with significant help from some previsualization technology. Proving that sometimes CG isn’t the best solution, they struck a good balance between real props and CG to get the perfect combination.
When people think of Virtual Reality they immediately imagine seeing a virtual world full of sights and sensations not available in reality, but they almost never think of the sound. Ford has found a new use for Virtual Reality in using it to create the “Virtual Vehicle Sound Simulator” to test out various automotive noises on future prototype cars.
VizWorld.com 
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