The Technology Behind The Incredibles and Ratatouille Compatible with x64 Windows

The technology behind animated movies such as The Incredibles, Toy Story, Ratatouille, and Monsters Inc. is fully compatible with 64-bit Windows. SIGGRAPH 2008 acted as the stage where Pixar celebrated none other than the 20-year anniversary of RenderMan, and introduced RenderMan Pro Server 14.0. Planned for availability in the fall of 2008, version 14.0 brings to the table full compatibility with both 64-bit Windows Vista desktop and 64-bit Windows HPC Server 2008. George Lucas revealed that what had once been nothing more than an "interesting artistic exercise" has evolved over the years into "an indispensable tool."

"The fact that RenderMan's REYES architecture can now take full advantage of the performance offered by 64-bit Windows Vista and Windows HPC Server 2008, means that extremely large datasets, impossibly large for 32-bit systems can be rendered. This makes it possible to create images with incredible complexity and raises the bar once again for cinematic imagery and visual effects." commented Turner Whitted, principal researcher at Microsoft Research.

Todd Needham, Senior PM in HPC applauded the relationship between Microsoft and Pixar, indicating its importance when it comes down to offering the resources necessary to customers to take their creativity to the next level. According to Needham, "RenderMan is the gold standard," from the software development kit to the new custom tools. And with version 14.0 available it is also possible that x64 Windows Vista or Windows HPC Server 2008 could play a role in the next Academy Awards-worthy animation.

"That's right, we're working with Pixar, the guys who did The Incredibles, Toy Story, Ratatouille, Monsters Inc. The shaders they used? All of it on RenderMan. 14 versions going back 20 years, nothing else like RenderMan, and now you'll be able to work with 64-bit datasets, get some choice in your pipeline configuration, faster AOVs, enhanced threading, let's put it this way, your graphics pros, your render wranglers, they just got their headroom doubled, I'm talking creative headroom but that's a conversation we should take offline, I don't want us to get rat-holed here, the 30,000 foot view is to grok the future, it's like nothing I've seen since Microsoft Research, 11 years I was over there," Needham stated.