Autodesk, Inc., is now shipping Autodesk Beast 2011 middleware*, the first release of the product since the company’s acquisition of Illuminate Labs in July 2010. Autodesk Beast middleware helps development teams aesthetically enhance their games with a pre-computed global illumination (GI) lighting solution, while helping to avoid complicated and time-consuming lighting setups and to minimize runtime cost.
Autodesk Beast 2011 offers three key components that work together to help decrease iteration time and enhance aesthetic quality:
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LiquidLight -- The core baking technology for advanced GI and dynamic relighting of characters
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eRnsT -- An interactive editor that helps artists control and explore lighting setups
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DistriBeast -- A distribution engine for running renders on multiple machines
Key features in Autodesk Beast 2011:
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Precomputed GI -- Prebake lighting for platform and engine independence, resulting in greater flexibility and portability.
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Aesthetic quality and efficient workflows -- Adjust overall scene lighting without bounce lights or ambient fills typically used to “fake” global illumination.
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Robust API (application programming interface) -- Integrate Beast into your game engine with a simplified interface.
