ATI FirePro™ Workstation Graphics - AMD

ATI FirePro Workstation Graphics
Case Study | StudioGPU
MachStudio Pro and ATI FirePro V9800 Professional
Graphics- radically advancing the 3D computer
graphics production process.
Traditional computer graphics production
pipelines are time consuming and resource
intensive and may force artists to make
unwelcome compromises if they are to
meet tight budgets and fixed deadlines.
With MachStudio Pro, Hollywood-based
StudioGPU has come up with a way to
address those issues. The MachStudio
Pro workflow is akin to a virtual 3D realtime
studio environment, allowing artists,
designers, directors, and technical directors
to work with lighting, camera views and
multi-point perspectives for a real-time
view of frames as they will appear in
the final rendered format. Designed
specifically to exploit professional graphics
processing unit (GPU) architectures such
as those found in the ATI FirePro V9800,
MachStudio Pro can radically improve the
way 3D computer graphics (CG) production
is carried out. Production cycles that often
take days or weeks can be dramatically
reduced, yet still achieve an image quality
that meets, if not exceeds, that generated
by traditional means.
Balancing cost, quality and deadline.
As well as being time consuming, traditional
rendering methods for high-quality 3D CG
require the use of costly computer systems
and resources. Digital artists render often
to check their work and determine precisely
how it will look in the final render. Each
modify-render-review cycle consumes
valuable time; the more complex the project
or change, the more time may be lost to
the process, thereby forcing artists to make
difficult compromises to help balance cost,
quality and deadlines. Generally speaking,
traditional hardware-accelerated renderers
can deliver in real-time, but cannot provide
the level of quality that content creators
desire. Alternatively, CPU-based final-frame
renderers produce high-end results, but do so at a
painfully slow pace.
An open 3D hub.
Powered by a lightning-fast graphics processorbased
real-time rendering engine, MachStudio
Pro is used for real-time development and
exploration of materials, lighting, cameras and fits
into the creative pipeline after the 3D models have
been produced. It uses models and animations
from most popular modeling and animation
packages and in effect is an open hub where 3D
artists are continually interacting with external
applications (e.g. modelling and animation, 2D
compositors and non-linear editors).
Harnessing the full power of the ATI FirePro
V9800 professional graphics.
Yoni Koenig, Chief Scientist at StudioGPU says,
“The whole concept came out of real world
production experience. MachStudio Pro was
designed from the artists’ point of view by artists
and people who have actually created games
and movies.” He continues, “MachStudio Pro
will work with most off-the-shelf professional

GPUs with at least 1 GB of on-board
memory, though our software has really
been designed to harness the full power
of ATI FirePro GPUs. For example, we
support hardware tessellation and real-time
displacement, features not currently available
when using other GPUs. The newest version
of MachStudio Pro will also leverage the full
power of DirectX® 11 support offered by the
FirePro family of products.”
The Visitors are here!
StudioGPU’s approach clearly delivers on its
promise, as award-winning Zoic Studios can
testify. V, the popular new television series
on ABC, is a modernized and re-imagined
version of the original 1983 mini-series. The
Visitors, in spaceships hovering over every
major city, have captured the attention of
both of viewers and of the visual effects
community. This success is due, in no small
part, to the innovators at Zoic who have
integrated a combination of MachStudio
Pro software from StudioGPU and ATI
FirePro professional graphics into Zoic’s
existing workflow, which includes Autodesk’s
Maya and The Foundry’s Nuke.
Finding the right tools.
Mike Romey, Pipeline Supervisor at Zoic
Studios, explains, “My job is to find the right
tools to meet our needs while balancing cost.
The impetus for adopting MachStudio Pro
in our pipeline was V,” he continues, “It has
so many virtual set shots, and the V sets
are quite robust. We wanted a new way to
get a beauty render as quickly as possible.”
He adds, “We started tracking the time it
took to do rendering for production and we
quickly realized that we had to come up with
solutions in our pipeline that are more costeffective
and faster.”
6,000 percent speed improvement.
Romey and his team established a test
case centered on a virtual set used in two
episodes, to calculate the time differences
between the traditional pipeline with its
rendering software and the new pipeline
with MachStudio Pro and FirePro. “We
are talking about really sizeable numbers,”
enthuses Romey. “MachStudio Pro yielded
a 1,500 percent speed improvement over the
alternate rendering software, and will provide
a 6,000 percent speed improvement
when all the customization is done.” Zoic
Studios’ Head of IT Saker Klippsten, noticed
another benefit. With MachStudio Pro,
they employed just 20 percent of their 450
CPU-based render nodes—which helped
Zoic Studios save on energy costs and
other expenses. He says, “This means we
can use fewer machines and less energy
to render the same footage in higher quality
and less time.”
The vital factors: memory, power and
speed.
Koenig is certain on these points, “On board
GPU memory is critical and this is just one
area where the V9800 scores. Studios
need high-quality, high-resolution textures
to be able to get cinematic quality results
and with the 4 GB V9800 this will be much
faster and much easier. A key benefit of
the V9800 is the ability to author your shot
while utilizing larger assets in the video
buffer on the GPU. This translates into higher
resolution and higher quality renders all
around.”
ATI Eyefinity Technology - a huge
productivity advantage.
There is more to the V9800 than sheer
power. Koenig again, “ATI Eyefinity
Technology is a big plus as it enables artists
to maximize workflow productivity. Working
with MachStudio Pro, our customers
interact with applications like Photoshop,
bringing different textures and material into
their 3D project. They then render each layer,
maybe do some finishing in a 2D compositing
program or they might even do some nonlinear
editing. Eyefinity enables artists to
work with three large monitors, all at full
resolution, so that they can see everything
without having to toggle between them all
on one screen. That’s a huge productivity
advantage and we could actually go up to
six monitors if we needed to.”
Nice work, AMD!
Summing up, Koenig comments, “Our
product allows artists to see the results of
their creative decisions in real time so that
they can experiment much earlier in the
process. AMD has been very supportive of
all our efforts, clearly pushing the envelope
on FirePro technology in terms of memory,
cores and power consumption, enabling us
to provide our customers with more options
for creative exploration, more control, topnotch
cinematic quality, in considerably less
time and at a much lower cost, too. The
V9800 is as smooth as silk! Nice work!”
ATI Eyefinity technology can support multiple displays using a single enabled ATI FirePro professional graphics card; the number of supported displays varies by card model.
Microsoft® Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, or Linux® is required in order to support more than 2 displays. Depe nding on the card model, native DisplayPort connectors and/or
certified DisplayPort active or passive adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your card’s DisplayPort or Mini-DisplayPort connector(s) may be required. See www.
amd.com/firepro for details. ATI Eyefinity technology can support multiple displays using a single enabled ATI FirePro professional graphics card; the number of supported displays
varies by card model. Microsoft® Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, or Linux® is required in order to support more than 2 displays. Depending on the card model, native DisplayPort
connectors and/or certified DisplayPort active or passive adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your card’s DisplayPort or Mini-DisplayPort connector(s) may be
required. See www.amd.com/firepro for details.
© 2010 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, ATI, the ATI logo, FirePro, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for
informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. PID 48321-A