LightWorks, Virtualight, and V-Ray Renderers Integrated into trueSpace7.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Caligari Announces New Rendering Solutions for the Next Generation of its Award-Winning Modeling Rendering and Animation Software

Caligari Corporation, award-winning producer of 3D modeling and animation software, today announced three new photorealistic rendering options for its next generation modeling, rendering and animation product, trueSpace7: LightWorks 7.4, Virtualight 1.4, and V-Ray.

LightWorks and Virtualight will ship standard with trueSpace7. The latest version of the V-Ray renderer will be available as a separate option for the product. All three renderers will be seamlessly integrated into the trueSpace7 user interface and users will be able to switch between them with a single mouse click.

"These three powerful rendering solutions will be worthy counterparts to the host of major innovations that will be featured in trueSpace7," said Roman Ormandy, founder and CEO of Caligari. "We have come a long way since we introduced the first integrated 3D solution for Windows back in 1994. Now, ten years later, we will set a new standard for authoring and interacting with 3D content. trueSpace7 will be a revolution."

trueSpace7 is expected to ship early in the first quarter of 2005. Users of trueSpace6.6, including those who purchase prior to release, will receive special upgrade pricing to move up to trueSpace7. Caligari will also provide incentive to users of other products who wish to add trueSpace7 to their 3D tool palette.

About LightWorks 7.4

LightWorks, from LightWork Design, has been the basic workhorse for photorealistic output in trueSpace for many years. The version 7.4 release of LightWorks includes support for HDRI rendering and trueSpace7 users will have a new range of materials available, including fully editable shader trees. Shader trees provide a much more powerful approach to creating rich materials than the simple layered process provided in earlier versions of trueSpace.

"LightWorks has been integrated as the core rendering engine within trueSpace for many years now. Over this time, LightWorks has become recognized as an industry standard for high quality, photorealistic rendering solutions, providing more than 1 million LightWorks users with powerful rendering functionality and access to a growing range of real-world LWA materials. The integration of LightWorks 7.4 as the standard renderer within trueSpace 7 will provide users with even more essential rendering features, ensuring that they will continue to create stunning photorealistic imagery in the future." Woll Newall, Founder and Product Manager, LightWork Design.

About Virtualight 1.4

New in trueSpace7 will be the integration of Stephane Marty's Virtualight 1.4, providing global illumination with irradiance, photon mapping, and caustics. Virtualight will also be fully integrated into trueSpace7 and standard trueSpace tools such as Area Render and the Material Editor will work seamlessly with the Virtualight engine. Features include:

--  Global Illumination

        --  Monte Carlo irradiance (with cache)

        --  Photon mapping for true reflective and refractive caustics

        --  Diffuse solar radiation (skylight)

    --  High Dynamic Range Image input & output

    --  Volumetric rendering (participating media)

    --  Chromatic light dispersion

    --  Multiple light source types (including area lights)

    --  Multiple camera lens models

    --  Depth of field

    --  Adaptive spatial antialiasing

    --  Advanced pixel filtering technique

    --  Film response and exposure

    --  Programmable surface shaders

    --  Stochastic reflection and refraction models

    --  True Displacement Mapping

    --  Layered, Composite, and Indexed shaders

About V-Ray

The V-Ray renderer from Chaos group is one of the fastest high-quality global illumination renderers available today. This optional renderer, once installed, will simply appear as a third rendering option in the preferences menu, with the same workflow as the standard renderers. The V-Ray renderer is a popular choice for many demanding professional users due to its robustness, speed, and an array of powerful features including:

--  Global illumination with support for image-based lighting;
        includes photon, irradiance, and illumination mapping.

    --  Raytracing through a highly optimized, unified, quasi-Monte
        Carlo sampling framework for fast rendering of multiple
        combined blurry effects (glossy reflections/refractions,
        depth-of-field, motion blur, area shadows, etc.)

    --  Sub-surface scattering and support for displacement mapping.

    --  Controllable full-scene antialiasing including antialiasing of
        texture maps and raytraced effects (shadows, reflections,
        etc.)

    --  Saving of direct illumination into the global lighting
        solutions provided by the photon and irradiance maps.

    --  Distributed rendering allowing single frame rendering on
        multiple machines.

    --  Reliable handling of extremely large datasets.

"We are excited by the upcoming integration of V-Ray into trueSpace7," said Peter Mitev, Vice President and Software Manager at Chaos Group. "V-Ray is a fast, flexible, production-oriented rendering solution with enough features to satisfy even the most hardcore 3D artist -- and seamless integration with trueSpace will provide the perfect complement to the modeling and animation power and smooth workflow of that product."

About Caligari Corporation

Caligari Corporation was founded in 1986 and has remained at the forefront of 3D authoring for the Web age. The company's award-winning flagship product, trueSpace, is a 3D modeling and animation program used by product designers, web designers, illustrators, and animators worldwide (according to the latest Roncarelli Report, trueSpace was named as '#1 in licenses and the world's most widely used 3D application').

The company maintains headquarters at 1959 Landings Drive, Mountain View, California, 94043. Contact Caligari by phone at 800-351-7620 or 650-390-9600; by fax at 650-390-9755.