Creating 3D graphics is far from a trivial process that requires an integrated approach to both software and hardware.
Today's professional graphics cards are a high-tech fusion that combines a powerful multi-core graphics processing unit (GPU) with parallel architecture and software to fully utilize the full GPU resources.
As you know, the parallel architecture is not capable of providing a multiple performance increase in comparison with the classical CPU architecture in all cases. First of all, these are differential equations, calculation of graphics, hydrodynamics, etc. An important element is the availability of the correct program code, which will maximize the "parallelization" of the tasks being performed. And if all these conditions are met, the efficiency of the system increases many times over.
Professional 3D graphics is in many ways not only about digital 3D prototyping. It is also a number of specific tasks for calculating the dynamics of physical processes, photorealistic visualization and others, for the solution of which special professional graphics accelerators are created.
A state-of-the-art professional graphics card - a solution that consists of a hardware - a graphics card - and a set of unique drivers optimized for professional applications. In the production of professional video cards and drivers for them, the emphasis is on reliability and long-term trouble-free operation. Therefore, they are many times more reliable than gaming video cards, and the drivers for them are certified by manufacturers of professional applications.
The most interesting hardware and software solutions in this area are provided by NVIDIA today with its line of professional graphics cards NVIDIA Quadro FX.
Here is a list of the main tasks that such cards are able to solve:
- fast and high-quality graphic rendering in CAD applications;
- hardware acceleration of physics using the NVIDIA PhysX engine;
- support for stereoscopic images;
- ray tracing calculation system OptiX;
- support for CUDA - a development environment that allows you to write software for complex computational tasks not related to graphics.
As you can see, the range of tasks to be solved is extremely wide and is not limited to the calculation of graphics. Let's try to dwell on each of these points in more detail.
NVIDIA Quadro FX is a series of professional graphics cards designed specifically for 3D graphics applications such as Autodesk 3ds Max, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Revit, and more. Virtually all NVIDIA professional graphics cards provide much faster graphics rendering speeds than conventional custom graphics cards. In this case, do not forget about the image quality and service life. These indicators for professional cards are also much higher.
The hardware physics engine PhysX has long won a place in video games, where it is necessary to calculate explosions, fire, water, destruction of objects, etc. in real time. But this technology has proven to be extremely useful for professionals as well. In particular, PhysX is actively used as a plug-in in Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya and allows you to create simulation of tissues, fluids, hard and soft bodies.
The plugin itself can be downloaded for free from the NVIDIA website.
The stereoscopy function is a technology that has received a second wind in recent years. Many studios that create three-dimensional animation, in addition to the regular version, are obligatory to release a stereo version for specially adapted cinemas. NVIDIA has developed glasses that allow you to work with 3D models in stereo. The principle of operation is based on shutter mechanisms built into the glasses, which makes it possible to transmit an image in a full color range, unlike simple two-color glasses.
Of course, volumetric 3D models in viewports allow you to better navigate in the space of the scene being created. Creation of stereoscopic cinema without such technology seems completely unthinkable.
The OptiX ray tracing calculation system is a technology that provides the ability to make the final photorealistic rendering of your project many times faster! Suffice it to say that the famous special effects division of Lucas Films, Industrial Light & Magic, is responsible for the visual effects for the films Pirates of the Caribbean, Iron Man, Transformers, Indiana Jones, etc. is currently building a new render farm based on NVIDIA GPUs.
It is worth noting that realistic rendering technologies are not limited to OptiX technology. NVIDIA recently acquired mental ray renderer mental images. After working together at the interface between mental images software and NVIDIA hardware, a new and unique product called iray was announced. The developers claim that iray will be included in the new version of mental ray 3.8. Very soon we will be able to render our projects using mental ray tools, using not the central processor, which, in fact, is not intended for such calculations, but the NVIDIA GPU.
A few words in this article should be said about CUDA technology, which is supported by all the latest generations of NVIDIA graphics cards. CUDA is an architecture that harnesses the power of the GPU for general-purpose computing. In fact, this is a development environment that allows you to perform any computations for which a parallel processor architecture is preferable. At the moment, the CUDA architecture supports the programming languages C, C ++, Fortran, and this is not the limit. The CUDA platform provides almost unlimited possibilities for using GPU resources for calculations of any complexity.
Technologies do not stand still, rather, on the contrary, in recent years we have seen their exponential growth and the emergence of new directions of development. Today, a graphics card in a 3D specialist's computer is not only a device that increases the frame rate when working with complex 3D models, but also a tool that accelerates the work with 3D graphics in almost all its variety.
Even such a prerogative of the CPU of the past as the final render is now quite successfully shifted to the "shoulders" of graphics processors, which almost everywhere leads to a manifold increase in the speed of calculating the final image or video.
