Nvidia GeForce to Quadro Soft-Mod ...Gelato GPU rendering

[vizfx]

Hi

The topic about Nvidia GeForce to Quadro Soft-Mod was debated a bit on this forum, but I think some important things escaped at the first look.

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=539&pgno=0

The most important thing is the announcement from Nvidia that Gelato Pro is free for download. Gelato is a powerful GPU rendering system for Max/Maya with advanced capabilities.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/gz_home.html

The light version can be used with any GeForce (from 5200) but the Pro version can be used only with QuadroFX. The difference between them: interactive relighting, multithreading, network rendering, 64 bit support….. just a few of them

The best things to come….. MentalRay was aquired by Nvidia

I think this topic deserves a lot of attention if you`re thinking from a future perspective

Best regards.

Mihai

[AJLynn]

Have you seen anything on whether it works with a soft-mod card? Cause there are still some limitations on those. Also, I guess the situation would improve if they integrated mental ray into this, but so far I haven't seen anything that makes me believe Gelato is good enough to go against mr/Vray/etc. in architectural rendering...

[vizfx]

I`m thinking at Gelato from the speed/quality ratio point of view…. fast renderings with decent look. Behind Amaretto (the plugin for 3DS Max) is FranticFilms http://www.franticfilms.com/software/products/amaretto/overview/

 

Some projects from FranticFilms:

http://www.franticfilms.com/vfx/

http://www.franticfilms.com/vfx/projects/archive/

and a bit about their software:

http://www.franticfilms.com/software/products/overview/

Edited June 5, 2008 by vizfx

[Macer]

I wonder how many years we will have to wait before nvidia allow mental ray (seeing as they've owned them for a while now) to execute on gpu's as well as cpu's. It sure would change the spec of your average render node. Triple SLI anyone?

[AJLynn]

I don't think it's a case of allowing so much as needing to port all that to nVidia's GPU programming language. It's not like going to a new Unix platform where they copy the files and type 'make all'

[Zdravko Barisic]

=================================================

Video Card: 7900GTO MAX2008

Display Type:

File Name | FPS

=================================================

4viewports.MAX | 57.6701

8direct.MAX | 456.621

8omni.MAX | 387.597

8spot.MAX | 328.407

blitting.MAX | 834.724

dualplanes.MAX | 862.999

geometry1.MAX | 349.243

geometry2.MAX | 223.38

multitex.MAX | 1.1782

rasterize.MAX | 653.168

textured1.MAX | 465.839

textured2.MAX | 169.563

textured3.MAX | 169.319

transpar.MAX | 219.106

wireframe1.MAX | 16.5517

wireframe2.MAX | 15.9464

Comp High: 147.564

Comp Low: 148.2

 

 

=================================================

Video Card: 7900GTO>Quadro 3500 MAX2008 1280/960

Display Type:

File Name | FPS

=================================================

4viewports.MAX | 87.6424

8direct.MAX | 512.821

8omni.MAX | 400.0

8spot.MAX | 337.268

blitting.MAX | 969.619

dualplanes.MAX | 908.747

geometry1.MAX | 392.157

geometry2.MAX | 236.967

multitex.MAX | 1.17777

rasterize.MAX | 435.35

textured1.MAX | 494.723

textured2.MAX | 171.821

textured3.MAX | 170.184

transpar.MAX | 225.428

wireframe1.MAX | 81.3449

wireframe2.MAX | 45.6066

Comp High: 199.446

Comp Low: 172.065

 

 

 

the mode is not perfect I know but who cares!

egz > you can not install MAXtreme, fuinny thing isnt it?

BUT I can install quadro driver and 3dsMAX works like a beast. ALMOST, NO crashing at all. Ofcourse the group helpe is still problem for MAX viewport

[vizfx]

I`ve started the same topic on the Nvidia`s Gelato forum. I`ll keep you informed.

[Antisthenes]

i have a softmod quadro 4000 i'd like to keep up to date on this as well.

[vizfx]

An interesting point of view on my post at Nvidia forums:

"I have been able to access all the pro features using all of my NVIDIA Geforce enabled machines, so there is essentially no benefit for anyone to 'emulate' a Quadro any more.

Comparing MentalRay and Gelato is not comparing apples with apples. MentalRay is not an accepted standard when dealing with film. It is a boutique product and seems to be more popular with architects, industrial designers and so on. One would assume that this is where most of NVIDIA's Quadro boards end up as well. Some 3D artists may use MentalRay in film, but it is definitely not the norm. The shading language is different, and more people know the Renderman shading language than do the MentalRay equivalent. It's a financial no-brainer for NVIDIA to move into MentalRay and push for it's use in the design/engineering industry. Don't expect a free version any time soon, as it seems like another Quadro selling exercise.

At least Gelato was more closely aligned with the accepted film practise of using Renderman based renderers and had a better chance of making it in to the film industry.

As for the quality issue, it comes down to the 'look' of MentalRay, 'out of the box' that makes it seem better qulaity. You need to play with more settings and put more work into shading and lighting before Gelato starts to look sexy. Classic case of garbage in garbage out."

[AJLynn]

That's actually not true - mental ray is one of the most widely used renderers in film - e.g., this list[/i] which isn't even complete.

 

Now, as for Gelato being good when you're good at it... did he give any examples? Anybody, raise your hand if you've sen a really good work done in Gelato using the level of realism required in arch-vis.