NVIDIA nTeresting Newsletter – 3 February 2014

In this Issue:

· ILM uses NVIDIA technology to get Oscars number 25 and 26
· With the help of GPUs, movies are becoming more believable or unbelievable.
· G-Sync is the talk of next-gen gaming, but it can be had today in a DIY kit.
· TegraZone update unlocks elite mobile gaming for all

ILM Receives Oscar #25 and #26

As a longtime partner, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) uses a lot of NVIDIA technologies to achieve its movie making magic. The most recent example of our collaboration resulted in their being awarded their 25th and 26th Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement.

“ILM Plume software that renders in record time VFX fire, smoke and explosions on top of NVIDIA’s GPU-accelerated CUDA parallel computing architecture and the Zeno framework that has given birth to countless ILM VFX tools.”

Utilizing NVIDIA CUDA parallel computing architecture, Plume has shown a 10x speed advantage over existing CPU-based fluid-dynamics software.

GPUs Make Movies Magical

Visual effects in movies have steadily gotten better and better. GPUs are the key to many of those improvements.

“For the 5th consecutive year every film nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects used NVIDIA technology.”

The difference in visual effects between 2004’s winner Spiderman 2 and this year’s nominees is night and day thanks to technical advances made possible by GPUs. Recently, at the Conference for Visual Media Production in London, Wil Braithwaite, senior applied engineer at NVIDIA, took us through a decade of GPU use in visual effects and post production to show how movie making magic has changed.

Next-Gen Gaming, Get it Today

Gaming is changing. Next-gen gaming is here and the technology will change your experience for the better. Things like the Oculus Rift will make your gaming more impressive and NVIDIA GRID puts your games in the cloud. But nothing says next-gen like NVIDIA G-Sync technology.

“These are games that are better played on fairly low latency monitors, or those with NVIDIA’s new G-Sync tech built in.”

G-SYNC synchronizes the monitor’s refresh to the GPU’s render rate, so images display the moment they’re rendered. Scenes appear instantly, objects are sharper and gameplay is smoother.

“Two hours later, after running my own G-Sync demo (on my own terms, with my own selection of games), I adamantly swore off gaming on anything but a G-Sync monitor, regardless of its size or resolution. The differences are that extreme. Once you see it for yourself, you’ll never go back.”

And you can get this technology today.

“You may have heard of “G-SYNC”, NVIDIA’s hardware and software-based solution to the phenomenon of screen tearing in PC games. While NVIDIA plans to partner with manufacturers to build this technology directly into displays, it is possible to grab a DIY kit from NVIDIA and install the gear yourself.”

TegraZone Gets Better

TegraZone, NVIDIA’s free app that showcases the best games optimized for the Tegra processor, received a major update this week. While those with Tegra devices have had the luxury of finding top games in one location, now anybody with an Android phone will be able to experience TegraZone – and people are taking notice:

“Word to the gaming public: NVIDIA has just released a pretty big TegraZone update that concerns even those without Tegra devices.”

This update also brings with it the ability to track a user’s Android games collection across multiple devices through the app itself – perfect for SHIELD fanatics also carrying a non-Tegra device.

“While this could simply open up Tegra game discovery for additional users, it may also appeal to those using a SHIELD (or other Tegra device) alongside a non-Tegra device.”

Android gaming has seen incredible growth over the years with Tegra and TegraZone helping pave the way. The TegraZone update provides enhanced Android HID controller support; meaning Android gaming devices like SHIELD, OUYA and MadCatz M.O.J.O. are even better supported.

“Perhaps most important of all is the fact that this TegraZone update brings on enhanced support for NVIDIA SHIELD controls as well as those of Android HID controllers. This connects the NVIDIA TegraZone further with the set-top box and microconsole universes, places where NVIDIA’s Tegra SoCs have been invading over the past couple of years.”

With the latest TegraZone update, NVIDIA has cemented itself even stronger as a leader in the world of Android gaming. Whether you’re rocking a SHIELD, Tegra Note 7 or any other Android device, TegraZone is at your fingertips and stronger than ever.

“It looks as though with this update, NVIDIA is trying to break down the walls of exclusivity that Tegra introduced, and for that, we thank you.”