Products: Discreet

Rendering breathes life into 2D and 3D images; by careful control ofray tracing and global illumination, flat art on a monitor translatesinto believable imagery.

Now, Discreet offers a more flexible way to work with one of theleading rendering programs, Mental Ray from Mental Images. WhileDiscreet integrated Mental Ray 3.2 into its 3ds Max 6 graphics,animation, and effects program, the company worked out a deal withMental Images to allow a standalone version of the renderer, ideal formultiple workstation setups and render farms.

The current 3ds Max 6 release includes a single license of MentalRay (for use on a two-processor workstation), but users can now buyadditional licenses for use in render farm configurations. The result?Discreet claims the new pricing delivers savings of up to 25 percentagainst “comparable 3D software solutions” that offer theMental Ray option. www.discreet.com