New Shader Authoring Technology Simplifies Creative Workflow Across Suite of Dassault Systà¨mes Products

Dassault Systà¨mes, a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management solutions, has teamed up with graphics technologies leaders NVIDIA Corporation and mental images to extend sophisticated shader technology to every user in the style and digital mock-up review processes, the companies announced today. Wider access to shading tools enables companies to create richer, more detailed simulations that yield higher quality 3D renderings that reflect the real world.
“Aesthetics and design quality create emotions and are key contributors to product success and brand recognition by consumers. DS V5 Real-Time Rendering solutions, complemented by NVIDIA’s FX Composer 2.0 and mental mill £ shader technology from mental images, moves rendering a step ahead in realism and ease of use, allowing to accurately perceive aesthetics during the design phases,” said Philippe Laufer, vice president, CATIA research and development, Dassault Systà¨mes.

This next-generation of shader functionality in CATIA, ENOVIA AND DELMIA, compliant with NVIDIA CgFX shader technology and OpenGL, offers high-quality rendering to a broad new community of rendering experts to CAD users and technical artists accustomed to working in the DCC world. It enables them to create more realistic simulation renderings in conceptual design that help companies make design changes and modifications early in the process, where they are easy and economical, rather than later in the process. Integration between NVIDIA, mental images and DS V5 products enable users to create shaders for use in CATIA-designed 3D models quickly and simply. It also spans user skill levels from rendering expert to CAD user to technical artists with no programming experience.

“The shader creation workflow we are enabling for DS’ products is a significant advantage for companies engaged in modern design and production,” said Jeff Brown, general manager, professional solutions, NVIDIA. “This latest shader technology collaboration between NVIDIA, Dassault Systà¨mes and mental images delivers a completely fluid way for DS customers to improve the design process in design and review. Users can now create shaders without the need for programming and this opens the door for realistic visualization throughout the entire design process.”

NVIDIA FX Composer 2.0 delivers powerful shader editing and integrated shader performance analysis tools, as well as supporting shader libraries, plug-ins, and scripting. mental mill Artist Edition from mental images gives technical artists and designers the ability to create customized shaders for V5 with an intuitive graphical interface that eliminates the need for shader programming.

mental mill is a new shader creation tool for all levels of expertise. A familiar graph editing paradigm allows the creation of complex shaders without programming skills. mental mill is based on MetaSL £, a new meta shader language, developed by mental images. Shaders written in MetaSL are independent of platforms and rendering algorithms, with a single shader supporting various hardware and software rendering techniques (e.g., CgFX, HLSL, GLSL, mental ray). mental mill’s graphical and interactive editing approach offers a significant productivity gain versus traditional shader creation methods. This enables users with little or no programming skills to generate the most complex shaders and phenomena.