The above image is not a photograph but a photo generated using the new (and free) NVIDIA Gelato 2.1 development software announced a few days ago.
Gelato is final-frame rendering software for the creation of high-quality computer-generated images which is accelerated by the NVIDIA Quadro FX and GeForce GPUs. Its first public version was announced in April 2004 and aimed for film and TV production professionals. Its initial price was $2,750 per node plus a $525 annual fee for maintenance and support. Version 2.1 is offered for free and allows students, freelancers, startups and small studios to take advantage of a high-end renderer with the capabilities of renderers normally costing thousands of dollars. In contrast to earlier versions which only worked with NVIDIA Quadro FX, Gelato 2.1 supports NVIDIA GeForce 5200 and higher, which makes it accessible to the general public.
Among its features, Gelato 2.1 offers:
• Antialiased texture, environment, and shadow mapping
• Motion blur
• Raytracing
• True displacement
• Automatic adaptive tessellation
• Ambient occlusion & global illumination
• Motion blur
• Raytracing
• True displacement
• Automatic adaptive tessellation
• Ambient occlusion & global illumination
The latest version is available freely for download and offered in both Linux and Windows XP flavors. Further information about Gelato as well as additional images and videos which were rendered by it are available at Gelato Zone.
