June 2006 - LightTools Version 5.3 delivers a fully featured, high-speed photorealistic rendering engine as a standard part of this powerful software package. This enables the designer to generate high-quality images of LightTools models that appear to be digital photographs. Users can apply surface finishes from an extensive built-in library and set backgrounds. A key aspect of the LightTools photorealistic renderer is its ability to include lit appearance -- that is, to show the luminance effects of light sources contained within the model itself. These photoreal views can be produced in any aspect ratio, with resolution limited only by system memory, and saved in standard graphics file formats, including PNG, BMP, JPG, and TIFF, as well as high dynamic range formats, such as HDR and OpenEXR.

Additionally, LightTools Version 5.3 delivers the ability to create extremely complex 3D objects through the use of the "skinned solids" feature. This enables the user to build an object simply by specifying its transverse cross sections, available in various shapes, at two or more points. The software then automatically constructs the longitudinal structure between these shapes. Furthermore, the user can specify the longitudinal surface profile to be straight lines, cubic splines, or even Bezier curves. The precise shape of the skinned solids can then be adjusted automatically using the LightTools optimizer.

The speed at which LightTools performs complex photometric analyses and system optimization has been improved with the addition of multi-CPU support, available to all users in this release as a Beta feature. Specifically, LightTools can now make full use of hardware configurations involving multiple CPUs, or single CPUs with hyperthreading or dual core architecture. The LightTools multi-CPU capability supports up to 8 processors in a single PC, and is available at no extra cost.

LightTools 5.3 is scheduled to ship in June 2006. For more information, please send an email to info@opticalres.com.

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