SceneCaster, mental images Partner to Offer Online 3D Content
 SAN
FRANCISCO, CA and BERLIN, Germany, Apr 23, 2009 - SceneCaster, a leading
provider of 3D social media applications, and mental images, a global leader
in rendering software and visualization tools, today announced a partnership
to bring photo-realistic 3D content and applications to millions of Internet
and social networking users.
SceneCaster has integrated mental images's RealityServer 3D web services
software platform to power the company's latest application called 3D
Scenes. 3D Scenes, currently available on
Friendster and
soon on Facebook and other global social networks, allows users to add their
favorite photos, videos and other personal media to photo-realistic, fully
interactive 3D Scenes. Users' personalized 3D Scenes can then be shared and
published across Friendster's social network and embedded anywhere on the
Web.
"With mental images's RealityServer solution we now offer users and
brands one of the highest quality 3D visual experiences on the Web", said
Mark Zohar, President and CEO of SceneCaster. "In addition to vastly
improving the user experience for 3D media on the Web, the level of visual
quality enabled by RealityServer is a key enabler of our virtual goods
marketplace where users can purchase premium photo-realistic 3D Scenes to
personalize and embed on their profile pages. For brands, our 3D Scenes
application offers one of the most engaging and effective social media
advertising platforms while ensuring premium visual representation of their
products and branding."
By providing a server side rendering solution, RealityServer software
allows SceneCaster to deliver the highest quality 3D scenes in a short
amount of time, no matter what computer hardware the end users may have. A
person working on a laptop or mobile Internet device can get the same level
of final rendering quality as if they were on a high end graphics
workstation. RealityServer software is deployed in the Cloud to house and
process the imagery, alleviating the user’s computer from having to do this
work. Depending on the application demands, RealityServer software can scale
to support large server clusters permitting thousands of concurrent users.
“RealityServer is a universal software platform for accessing and
interacting collaboratively with rich 3D digital content from any user
device on the net,” says Rolf Herken, CEO and CTO of mental images. “mental
images is excited about SceneCaster’s integration of RealityServer because
it provides the social networking world with a unique and imaginative 3D
application that truly enhances online profiles and experiences overall.”
In considering rendering solutions, SceneCaster chose RealityServer
software to power its 3D Scenes application due to the following benefits:
- Exceptional quality of the images produced for 3D Scenes
- Overall speed of the rendering solution found to be second to none
at equivalent quality levels
- Availability of COLLADA as a scene format for input made it simple
to integrate into SceneCaster’s production pipeline
- Packaged as a fully functional web service at the start, the initial
integration takes only a matter of days to complete
- mental images’ roadmap and commitment to provide powerful hybrid
CPU/GPU solutions
- The GPU based acceleration offered is a key means to deliver high
quality content to end users rapidly over the web
- Flexible licensing and monitoring allows SceneCaster to scale
rapidly with customer demand
“Our experience integrating RealityServer was the best I have ever had
with respect to integrating an external service into our overall solutions,”
says Alain Chesnais, CTO of SceneCaster. “The integration team at mental
images set up a private forum for us to use so that we could literally work
around the clock, given the time zones involved, and helped with modifying
C++ code in our modeling software as well as development of custom
JavaScript code to deal with how assets were managed and where the resulting
renders needed to be sent. We are currently using Reality Server 2.2 and are
looking forward to using 2.3 as it becomes available.”
About mental images
mental images, founded in 1986, is the recognized international leader in
providing component and platform software for the creation, manipulation and
visualization of 3D content. Its world leading rendering and other
technologies are used by the entertainment, computer-aided design,
architecture, scientific visualization, and other industries that require
sophisticated images primarily as part of their software products and
application services. mental images is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NVIDIA
Corporation with headquarters in Berlin, Germany, a subsidiary in the United
States, mental images, Inc., and a subsidiary in Melbourne, Australia,
mental images Pty. mental images has a multinational staff of top qualified
engineers exclusively dedicated to basic research and development in the
area of 3D graphics and 3D Web Applications and Services technologies. For
more information, visit
www.mentalimages.com.
About SceneCaster
SceneCaster is a leading provider of 3D social media applications that
enrich the online consumer experience and create brand advocacy.
SceneCaster’s applications reach millions of users on social networks such
as Friendster and Facebook and are among the most popular applications on
these networks. SceneCaster’s mass market appeal and immersive 3D Web
technology offers brands a unique, interactive and entirely
performance-based advertising solution that reaches a global audience of
highly engaged users. For more information, visit
www.scenecaster.com.
Trademarks: mental images and RealityServer are registered trademarks of
mental images GmbH, Berlin, Germany, in the United States and/or other
countries. Other product and company names in this document may be
trademarks of their respective owners.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) is the world leader in visual computing
technologies and the inventor of the GPU, a high-performance processor which
generates breathtaking, interactive graphics on workstations, personal
computers, game consoles, and mobile devices. NVIDIA serves the
entertainment and consumer market with its GeForce products, the
professional design and visualization market with its Quadro products, and
the high-performance computing market with its Tesla™ products. NVIDIA is
headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. and has offices throughout Asia,
Europe, and the Americas.
For more information, visit
www.nvidia.com.
© 2009 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo,
GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla are trademarks or registered trademarks of NVIDIA
Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names
may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are
associated.
Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited
to, statements as to: the benefits, features, and capabilities of
RealityServer; and the partnership between SceneCaster and mental images are
forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that
could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include:
development of more efficient or faster technology; adoption of the CPU for
parallel processing; design, manufacturing or software defects; the impact
of technological development and competition; changes in consumer
preferences and demands; customer adoption of different standards or our
competitor's products; changes in industry standards and interfaces;
unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when
integrated into systems as well as other factors detailed from time to time
in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission
including its Form 10-K for the fiscal period ended January 25, 2009. Copies
of reports filed with the SEC are posted on our website and are available
from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not
guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and,
except as required by law, NVIDIA and mental images disclaim any obligation
to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or
circumstances.
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See Also
mental images website
Graphics, Animation and Visualization - list by TenLinks.com
Additional News
Nov 4 - mental images, NIAR Launch RealityServer Demo Center
Oct 1 - mental ray 3.8 to Include iray Rendering, Due Nov
Jun 10 - mental ray 3.7+ Integrated with Pro/E Wildfire 5.0
Apr 23 - SceneCaster, mental images Join to Offer Online 3D Content
Mar 27 - mental ray 3.7+ to Integrate with 3ds Max 2010
Mar 23 - mental mill Artist Edition Supports 3ds Max 2010
Aug 14 - mental ray 3.7 Integrates with Autodesk Maya 2009
Source: Material used in press releases is often supplied by external
sources and used as is.
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