Beast Global Illumination Lighting Helps Decrease Iteration Time and Increase Aesthetic Quality with LiquidLight, eRnsT and DistriBeast Features

EVE Online. Image courtesy of CCP Games.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Oct. 26 2010 -- Autodesk, Inc., is now shipping Autodesk Beast 2011 middleware*, the first release of the product since the company’s acquisition of Illuminate Labs in July 2010. Autodesk Beast middleware helps development teams aesthetically enhance their games with a pre-computed global illumination (GI) lighting solution, while helping to avoid complicated and time-consuming lighting setups and to minimize runtime cost.

CrimeCraft: BLEEDOUT. Image courtesy of Vogster Entertainment.

Autodesk Beast 2011 offers three key components that work together to help decrease iteration time and enhance aesthetic quality:
• LiquidLight — The core baking technology for advanced GI and dynamic relighting of characters
• eR nsT — An interactive editor that helps artists control and explore lighting setups
• DistriBeast — A distribution engine for running renders on multiple machines

EVE Online. Image courtesy of CCP Games.

Key features in Autodesk Beast 2011:

• Precomputed GI — Prebake lighting for platform and engine independence, resulting in greater flexibility and portability.
• Aesthetic quality and efficient workflows — Adjust overall scene lighting without bounce lights or ambient fills typically used to “fake” global illumination.
• Robust API (application programming interface) — Integrate Beast into your game engine with a simplified interface.

EVE Online. Image courtesy of CCP Games.

*Features in Autodesk Beast 2011 middleware may differ from features announced by Illuminate Labs prior to July 2010.

Autodesk, Beast and LiquidLight are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

© 2010 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.