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Shaderlight software could transform the way 3D artists edit rendered images, allowing them to make on-screen changes in real time. Charles Clarke reports

Very occasionally, a piece of software comes along that completely changes the way a process is performed. Shaderlight, the latest rendering tool from ArtVPS, may prove to be one of those products.

Shaderlight changes the way 3D artists generate and edit high-quality rendered images. Traditionally, making changes to a rendered image involved a long wait while the image completely re-rendered from scratch.

Shaderlight is a physically based progressive ray-tracer that enables interactive changes to be made to materials, environments, lighting and textures (the key MELT attributes) at any stage in the rendering process. 3D artists can make changes on screen to a fully rendered image and see the results in real time without compromising image quality or restarting the render. Even while the image is rendering, the user can fine tune it, making MELT changes until the result is perfect.

The software is a plug-in rendering engine to 3ds Max, the 3D modelling, animation and rendering system from Autodesk for the game, film, television, web, multi-media and marketing communication industries.

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