Mercury Adds Apps For 3D Developers

For designers working in the 3D world, the company unveils three applications for ray tracing, graphics-application publishers, and for users needing a desktop platform offering the entire workflow in industrial design. Targeting 3D-application developers, OpenRTRT is a software-development kit (SDK) that delivers real-time ray tracing capabilities. The SDK offers an easy-to-use API that provides an alternative to an OpenGL rendering engine. Promising photo-realistic renderings at interactive rates, it enables accurate reflections, refractions, and fine shadow details, and delivers linear scalability through distribution on a cluster configuration. For 3D application publishers, DirectViz integrates OpenRTRT technology within the standard framework for 3D development. The app is an extension to Version 6 of Open Inventor, an object-oriented, cross-platform 3D software suite with more than 1,200 ready-to-use classes. Patchwork3D by Lumiscaphe is a software workshop for interactive 3D digital design work. Employing a real-time rendering engine, the software provides all the tools to import CAD models, apply textures and lighting, and perform interactive viewing. With real-time rendering and realistic simulation, Patchwork3D allows industrial designers to communicate as early as the design stage begins. Price for OpenRTRT and DirectViz single-developer licenses starts at $7,200 and cluster licenses starts at $50,000. Patchwork3D single licenses start at $27,000. MERCURY COMPUTER SYSTEMS INC., Chelmsford, MA. (866) 627-6951.