BOXXtalk - The BOXXlabs Tech Review

come with me!

2010-02-13T21:40:00.003-06:00

Hello Folks -

As I no longer work with BOXX Technologies, I will unfortunately no longer be updating this blog.

I can be reached at adam@adamglick.net or followed here: www.adamglick.net/

Cheers and see you soon.

Adam

Sony to begin selling 3DTVs by the end of next year

2009-09-03T16:59:00.006-05:00

I just saw this and thought I'd share -

(more tasty original BOXXlabs stuff coming soon kids, i promise!)

from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/093755da-9759-11de-83c5-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Sony plans to put 3D televisions in homes by the end of next year

3D technology looks set to hit the home consumer market next year, with Sony today announcing plans to sell 3D televisions globally by the end of next year.

Sony's decision to throw its weight behind the technology will be an important boost for the 3D industry, which has so far focused mainly on cinemas. British Sky Broadcasting has said it would introduce a 3D satellite channel in the UK next year, but it had been unclear whether there would be equipment available with which to view it.

Due to speak today at the IFA technology trade show in Berlin, Sir Howard Stringer , Sony chief executive, will announce plans not only to sell 3D Bravia television sets, but to make Sony's Vaio laptop computers, PlayStation 3 games consoles and Blu-ray disc players compatible with the technology.
Mr Stringer is expected to tell the audience: "Today, 3D is clearly on its way to the mass market.
"As with high definition a few years back, there are a variety of issues yet to be addressed. But the 3D train is on the track, and we at Sony are ready to drive it home."

The consumer electronics industry has yet to agree on a single 3D standard, posing the risk of a format war akin to that between VHS and Betamax or Blu-ray and HD-DVD standards.
There are several types of 3D technology. Sony has opted for "active shutter" technology, using electronic glasses containing tiny shutters that open and close rapidly in synch with the television image to create a 3D impression.

Cinema 3D uses "polarisation" technology with simpler glasses. However, this only works when viewers are at a certain angle to the screen, making it less suited to home viewing.
Sony, which suffered heavy operating losses in the autumn, recently closed its last LCD television factory in North America to concentrate on higher-margin products.

Sony has given no indication of prices, but analysts expect early 3D TVs to cost several thousand pounds.

CopyrightThe Financial Times Limited 2009.

Lot's going on...but here's a tidbit on VRAY for Maya

2009-08-28T16:27:00.004-05:00

Lot's going on...too much to mention here but I'll post an update soon.

In the mean time, there's a pretty juicy discussion going on here regarding the comparative strengths/weaknesses of the newly released VRAY for MAYA vs. mental ray (for Maya) for the broader 3D design markets.

My experiences over the past year or so messing around with the beta builds - and now the finished product have been very positive. There's a way to go before VRAY offers all the flexibility and conveniences found in some other "production renderers" but I don't think this is going to stand in the way of people and studios that want to start working with it today for selected projects and scenes! I'm officially a VRAY fan.

It's good eatin'...

new BOXXlabs video

2009-08-17T16:01:00.000-05:00

Check out the new BOXXlabs video overview of the renderBOXX 10300.

This is the first installment in a series of short videos we will be putting online beginning in September.

The series will cover everything from data storage to choosing the right compnents for your next graphics workstation to recent (and upcoming) changes in some of the most widely used software applications.

http://www.boxxtech.com/products/RenderBOXX/10300_overview.asp

Ready or not- here comes the BOXXlabs SIGGRAPH 2009 preview

2009-07-15T18:36:00.015-05:00

So, with SIGGRAPH '09 bearing down on us, I though I'd share my thoughts about some of the highlights we might expect to see this year - and a few of the key items on my "must do" list for the Big Show.

Smaller Show This Year (but that's not necessarily a bad thing)

In keeping with the recent trend of down-sized conventions, this year's SIGGRAPH will be smaller than recent years in both footprint and the number of people in attendance.

On the surface, this might seem like a drag. Fewer people, exhibitors and events would lead some to think that the "spectacle" that is SIGGRAPH may not have quite the euphoric, all-encompassing scale of years-past.

However, there are plenty of reasons that a smaller SIGGRAPH might still make for a fullfiling and valuable experience.

Still present will be the amazing computer animation festival, the fun competitions, the cool live music, -and of course, the parties. And there will still be plenty of cool technology. I promise.

And with less people in attendance, you'll likely have a better chance getting into the more popular conference sessions and discussions. This is a good thing, as SIGGRAPH is possibly the very best place to receive knowledge from recognized authorities and subject matter experts on a wide range of CG-specific topics.

Incidentally, the number of listed informal "Birds of a Feather" meetings scheduled this year seems at least as diverse and numerous as last year. The BOF meetings are very intimate and provide rare opportunities to network with people in your specific line of work, and to glean little tidbits of info that can help you do your job even better than you already do it. This is networking on steroids.

While there are definitely fewer vendors with booths on the expo floor, I expect that virtually all of the companies developing and selling technology of any relevance or importance in our industry will still be there. If not with their own booth, they will be there "partnering" with other companies -sharing floorspace, and meeting in private with customers and business partners alike. If you need face time with somebody from a vendor that you do business with - or who's tools you use in your work, the chances are good that you'll be able to track down the appropriate person(s). Look for logos on shirts -or better yet, call to arrange a meeting with a company rep before you get out to New Orleans. These guys are typically very happy to talk about any specific "issues" you might be having with their product, and helpful in answering questions about the companies' newest stuff.

Attending SIGGRAPH provides stellar opportunities to experience emerging technologies and hear about academic/industrial research projects that will shape the future of the computer graphics world. With less people in attendance, those of us that do show up hopefully won't have to wait in line as long to watch demos, or to get "hands on" time with demo systems and technology prototypes. I personally love to see the new stuff up close -to me it's easily the most interesting and inspiring part of SIGGRAPH. Every year I make the Emerging Technologies showcase one of the primary digs on my SIGGRAPH treasure map -and this year is no exception.

For job-seekers, fewer people in attendance should mean an easier time putting your resume and/or demo reel in front of the right people. Fewer applicants may mean you'll have a better chance of "standing out from the crowd". I've not really spent much time there myself, but I do know people who have gotten jobs at the SIGGRAPH job fair in years past.

There's a certain satisfaction that comes from knowing that you managed to do/see or all of the things you were really interested in checking out. Unfortunately, this feat just isn't humanly possible for most of us when attending "monster" conventions like NAB*. So the idea that a smaller SIGGRAPH means we might get to "see" more stuff is perhaps another compelling reason to go even though it's smaller than years-past.
*NAB shows seem to be really down-sized lately as well, doesn't it?

HD is old news. 2K was so 2006... Get ready for 4K, 8K, 16K, and beyond!

Continuing advances in the performance of CPUs, storage technologies and software tool sets expose artists and facilities to recently unattainable (or unaffordable) capabilities for working on ultra-high-res projects. And the timing is just about perfect -as this coincides quite nicely with emerging advances in digital cinema cameras and display technologies that we'll (and you'll) be working with for upcoming projects.

With the proliferation of 2K and 4K camera systems (a particular color comes to mind), there's a ton of nicely shot, ultra-high-res content floating around. And while a (shrinking) majority of films for wide release are still shot on film, more and more VFX sequences (and even entire films) being made are leveraging a 4K "DI" (digital intermediate) process for production and post-production pipelines.

Expect to see loads of 4K eye-candy and worklflow demos everywhere you look.

There are rumors that some 8K (and possibly even a 16K) display devices will be up and running. Now I don't know about you, but I'm wondering where anybody gets 16K live action plates... In any case, the pixel wars continue to rage -and will be evident at this year's show.

I expect that we'll see many new software tools designed for "gigapixel" image manipulation and photo stitching as well.

3D/stereographic - it's here to stay.

Many of the same technological advances that are enabling the 4K+ boom, are providing the technological horsepower needed to produce 3D "stereographic" films and other types of material. No longer a gimmick, the demand for "3D" content seems to be catching up to recently refined technologies for producing, post-producing and displaying stereographic content.

After several years of widespread argument on the matter, many experts and industry analysts now agree that we are beginning to reach..ok, i'll say it - a "critical mass" - in the intertia of a blossoming new industry for 3D/stereo content.

I expect to see a ton of both "active" and "passive" headware (glasses)-based 3D viewing technologies being incoporated into applications for nearly every vertical market and niche.

*(Passive display technologies that don't require some type of headware or glasses have proved elusive, and there are currently no feasible 3D glass-free viewing technologies being commercialized that I know of. I doubt we'll see any companies advancing this technology in any meaninful ways at the show)

I also expect to substantial showings from companies demonstrating new realtime, interactive 3D implementations for gaming, industrial/product design, and "location-based" entertainment such as Disney rides and other large semi-permanent installations.

Augmented Reality

A relatively new type of hybrid technology that's likely going to make some noise at this year's SIGGRAPH is something called "augmented reality".

As defined by wikipedia, augmented reality (AR) is "a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time. The term is believed to have been coined in 1990 by Thomas Caudell, an employee of Boeing at the time^[1]."

(the WIKI author figured out how to say it much more elegantly that I have been able to...)

Research has been going on in this area for quite some time, and an AR-enabled smartphone app was recently released for consumers. This new hybrid application of real and virtual imagery is exposing completely new mechanisms of human-computer interaction for everything from industrial design, to architectural visualization, to home entertainment. And very likely, everything in between.

Keep an eye out for "AR" on both the expo floor as well as the emerging technologies area.

Realtime/interactive Raytracing

For those of you who have been paying attention, the development of "RTRT" (realtime raytracing) has recently seen a ton of acvtivity.

After laboured and slow advances for nearly a decade, hardware-based 3D raytracing is finally reaching a certain point of maturity.

I count over a dozen "interactive raytracing" or "realtime raytracing" products now on the market or in development. Not all these tools are designed for the same purposes, but all have one thing in common - optimized processing that uses accurate lighting models to produce a quick, 'photoreal" image.

Some of these new engines use "brute-force" floating-point processing of CPUs. Others are using GPUs to do the math required. And still others are using hybrid approaches that combine both types of processing to provide more flexibility in using lights, shaders and implementing effects such as motion blur and depth of focus.

I expect that attendees of this year's SIGGRAPH will probably see all sorts of nifty interactive raytracing technologies that are fundamentally changing the way 3D work gets rendered.

New Orleans- The Perfect Venue?

In 2000, SIGGRAPH attendance was about 26,000. There were about 300 companies exhibiting their goods.

According to my sources, this year's attendance is expected to be about the same -and the number of exhibitors slightly less.

One of my most memorable SIGGRAPH experiences was in New Orleans in 2000.
The exquisite melange of people, technology, art, food, music and culture -mixed with a healthy splash of rum, made for a unique and memorable experience. My recollection of the 2000 event, although blurry (for multiple reasons), is that the city provided a perfect backdrop for the size and scope of activities and people that come to SIGGRAPH.

My expectation is that this year will be no different in those regards.

The global CG community is as culturally diverse as the technology and creativity born from it. What better venue for SIGGRAPH than New Orleans -a city that celebrates human diversity and creativity like no other place on earth.

See you in New Orleans!

Into the looking Glass

2009-05-04T12:02:00.011-05:00

I spend a considerable amount of time every week wondering what the future has in store for us in regard to technology in general - and 3D design and animation in specific.

Where are the tools, technologies and methodologies for 3D art creation headed?

Well, I think things over the next 10 years will evolve much as they have in the past 10 years or so...

This is to say, we will have mostly evolutionary advancements mixed the an occasional revolutionary advancement or two.

I'm no soothsayer, but here are my best guesses as to where things are headed:

1. practical & effective "interactive" hardware based raytracing is being perfected for commercial use as we speak. This is no longer a toy or some fringe technology. Several companies are about to release "game changing" hybrid 3D rendering technologies that will fundamentally change the way 3D art gets made. Expect more of the same from other vendors and broad support for hardware based rendering from the ISVs such as Autodesk.

2. advances in software development approaches will make better use of multicore CPU's. More features ands tools will be better "threaded" for overall better performance on modern multi-core computers.

3. (partly because of #1 & #2 above) New pipelines, methodologies and workflows for desktop "multitasking" and content creation will continue to increase the efficiency of the individual artist. THESE NEW, YET-UNKNOWN WORKFLOWS (and resulting efficiencies) WILL BE THE FACE OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGY in this space. This is always the case with technology, I suspect.

4. "Smart" modeling and animation algorithms in 3D packages will speed modeling and animation tasks. Libraries and databases detailing the concepts and design of construction and assembly of thousands of types of objects and motions will allow your software to take informed "guesses" as to the effect that the artists is trying to achieve - and will assist the artist in preparing and finishing surfaces and perhaps motion paths/cycles, etc. This could be an online "pay service" integrated into your application and connected to the database(s) via the web.

5. Stereoscopic displays in the home (and at the theatre) will be common place in 5 years. Production & post production pipelines are beginning to adapt to this reality. This certainly includes 3D production pipelines. The first generation of tools and methodologies are in place. The will see more elegant approaches being developed and put into use.

6. New human-computer interfaces such as haptic, gestural/optical eye & hand tracking, voice recognition and command, and others will continue to evolve. We will likely see some of these evolve to the point that they will be adopted into graphics, 3D and VFX design tools. If not for "finishing work", at least for ideation, conceptualization and review.

7. The "bar" for what people come to expect in "photoreal" 3D content will continue to be raised as more and more accurate lighting models/approaches are enabled and refined. The line between reality and make-believe will continue to blur. This will be more evident in the area of creating synthetic human and animal characters that are indistinguishable from the real thing -the "holy grail" of 3D VFX.

7. Finally, In general, I believe that the training and tools required to produce top quality 3D imagery and animation will continue to become more and more accessible by those with a desire to succeed in this industry.

Intel address SSD fragmentation bogey with new firmware

2009-04-14T09:56:00.004-05:00

Not too long ago, Intel released a new family of SSD (solid state drive) technology that shattered existing performance levels posted by the other SSD manufacturers.

Shortly after Intel began began shipping the X-25 SSD, a few PC enthusiast websites undertook a detailed and lengthy look at a wide range of performance characteristics and benchmark scores for this new drive.

They found a bug.

The bug they found would cause one of these Intel SSDs to begin to exhibit slower performance after a bit of normal use due to "fragmentation" of the billions of "addresses" within the data structure the hard drives use to store user data.

While not a fatal flaw, the issue can reduce the performance of one of these new drives dramatically over a fairly short period of use -requiring the periodic "reformatting" of the device to restore the rated performance.

This little snafu has likely slowed the adoption of these comparatively expensive storage devices by early adopter PC hardware enthusiasts and specialty PC manufacturers.

Intel denied it at first, but have now reported being able to "replicate" the issue in their testing labs. And at the same time, they have announced a "fix".

There is a new firmware revision for the intel X-25M that can be freely downloaded and implemented to restore normal, amazing, phenomenal, mind-blowing, (ok enough drooling?) operation of these ground-breaking new drives.

**If you own a n Intel X-18M or X-25M and are dying to make use of this wonderous new fix, be prepared to back up your data first!

Here's the link to the download the firmware: http://support.intel.com/support/ssdc/index_update.htm

Here's an in-depth article on this new development written by the original guys(s) that discovered the flaw: http://pcper.com/article.php?aid=691&type=expert&pid=1

New Advances for Stereographic "3D" Digital Cinema

2009-03-30T12:14:00.007-05:00

Monsters vs. Aliens is a hit! $60 Million in the first weekend...

I can't wait to take my girl to see it later this week -and my expectations are pretty darn high.

I've been closely following the development and adoption of 3D filmmaking technologies for the past couple of years.

The newly refined 3D tools, technologies and methodologies available to filmakers allows for a much richer, more elegant 3D movie viewing experience compared to that of even a year or two ago -let alone those dating from the 50's that required wearing those red/blue ("anaglyphic") monstrosities on your face.

There's been a ton of activity on Hollywood around the idea of making movies in 3D. Many of the big blockbuster films shot in the past couple of years were produced with 3D viewing in mind.

In fact, 100% of the films made by Disney and Pixar in the past 18 months have been shot and produced in "3D". However, with only a few hundred theatres nationwide having been upgraded with the new 3D projection technologies, most of these films have been distributed and viewed by audiences in the standard "2D" format.

The problem has been cost.

It can cost between $150,000 to $300,000 to update a single movie theatre screen with the new technologies required to give viewers a quality 3D experience. Most or all of this cost falls on the owner of the theatre - and to them, recovering the cost of this significant cash outlay is a risky proposition.

Will enough people come to see 3D movies?
Will they pay $5 to $8 more for each ticket just to view the film in 3D?
Is this just a "fad" that will pass before the cost has been recovered?

Luckily, the signs are beginning to point to a big fat "YES!!"

Just today, AMC Theatres announced a deal with Sony that will put super high-resolution digital projection systems into all of their 4600 screens across the country. (here's the link - http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118001829.html?categoryid=13&cs=1)

This doesn't mean that all of them will be "3D-capable" but the implication is that a great many of them will be. After all, a majority portion of the cost involved in upgrading a theatre to 3D projection capabilities is the digital projector itself.

I'm adding up the most current data and trends and I'm seeing, finally, a newly energized inertia of both the industry and the movie-going public towards an embrace of 3D film.

Here's some additional tasty reading on the topic:

http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/node/797

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/42072917.html

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/mkt-digitalcinema/?XID=O:4Kon3D08_030109_digcinreport_homepage_3_d145x600swf:3d

http://www.reald.com/

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/entertainment/dolby-digital-cinema-d-digital-cinema-systems-selected-china-film-group/

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/entertainment/amc-entertainmentr-reald-announce-d-partnership/

The Story on Storage - SSD vs. hard disc drives

2009-03-23T10:23:00.012-05:00

Let's jump straight into this -

A "hard drive" is a data storage device inside of a computer on which the operating system, applications, user files and other data is stored.

ok. good so far?

SSD stands for "Solid State Drive". It's just a hard drive. -A hard drive with no moving parts.

ok. still with me? good.

All previous hard drives over the past 30 or 40 (or so) years have relied on tiny moving parts inside the device. The moving parts include electric motors, spinning magnetic discs (also called platters or spindles) and little moving armatures that are suspended over the spinning discs to read/write the bits of data.

One could compare the mechanics of these devices to that of old record players (for those of us who can remember what a record player is...) ;)

Ok. So who cares if a hard drive has moving parts or not?

Well, we all should.

The fact is that electronic devices with no moving parts (aka Solid State devices) are more reliable, smaller and often much better performing than the mechanical devices they replace.

The same is (mostly) true about these new SSDs -and the "olde stlye" spinning hard drives that account for the vast majority of hard drives in computers today.

So what do we need to know about SSD's?

Here are a few facts you should know about SSD's right off the bat:

1) SSD's use RAM (Random Access Memory) chips to store data - very much like thumb drives -only faster.

2) SSD's use a standard "SATA" drive connection to connect to the host computer and can be used with any modern workstation or laptop system.

3) Per Megabyte of storage, SSDs can be anywhere from 3X to 15X more expensive than standard drives. However, SSD prices are dropping very quickly while capacity for storage space is rapidly growing.

4) Not all SSD's are created the same. There are available at different price and performance levels. While the high-end SSDs perform better than virtually all other hard drives, lower-end SSD's can give less than stellar performance, depending on the specific computing task.

ok.

So what are the benefits of SSD technology for digital artists?

I'll remind the reader that we are very early in the development and adoption of SSD technology in the computer industry. The relatively high cost and low storage capacity for well-performing SSDs can limit their feasibility and/or desirability for certain specific applications and useage models.

However, here are the types of uses I think SSDs are really good for today - assuming budget is not a concern...

1. Primary/System (OS) Drives for any workstation. A computer that uses high-end SSDs for the operating system and prograns will boot faster, open/close applications faster and give al overall boost in "seat-of-the-pants" feeling of system speed than one using older standard hard drives.

2. User Data/Project storage/"Scratch Discs" - depending on your storage space requirements, using SSDs (either single SSDs or grouped together in a "stripe set" or RAID configuration) can dramatically decrese the time it takes to open/save very large project files or projects.
Additionally, for video editing or VFX work, an SSD-based drive array (two or more SSDs working together as one) can provide the same performance as 3X the number of standard hard drives.

OK.

;)

While there are some great reasons why SSD's may be of use for you, we need to take a look at some of the limitations that may (and for many of you probably should) keep you away from the m for the time being. Here are the caveats:

***CAVEATS***

1) Storage Capacity.
Do keep in mind that the storage capacity for most SSDs (and for all of the really well-performing ones) is much smaller than standard spinning disc-based drives. If you have multiple Terabytes of data that needs to be online at any one time, SSDs are almost certainly NOT going to be cost-effective. Capacity of SSDs today ranges from 32GB to 250GB.

2) Performance.
As I alluded to earlier on the post, SSDs are available in several price/performance categories. According to our own internal lab studies, as well as unbiased reporting from respected sources such as Anandtech.com and TomsHardware.com, the less expensive SSDs currently on the market can provide mixed performance depending on the computing task.

I try to stay brand-agnostic whenever possible but here I do need to make some distinctions that require me to call out some brands and product lines:

The Intel "X25" series SSD drives clearly outperform all other offerings for accross-the-board performance. The outperform all other spinning discs on the market in virtually every type of capability and useage model.

The next "step down" in terms of price and performance are the "Vertex" SSD drives from OCZ Technology. They seem to be less expensive than the Intel X25E, with slightly faster speeds for sutsained sequential reads and writes. Unfortunately, these drives perform quite poorly for other types of genreral storage tasks that involve "random" reads and writes.

What does this mean? Well, It means that these SSDs may make great drives as a "video storage array" for working with large, sequential images such as DPX , TIFF or PNG. But they would almost certianly SLOW DOWN your system if used as a the "primary drive" for your operating system or applications.

At the bottom of the SSD category in terms of price (and not surprisingly, performance) are pretty much any other devices being sold as SSDs by a wide range of vendors. These entry level SSD drives are widely understood to be lacking in mot of the performance areas that matter to digital artist -and my advice is to stay well-clear of any of these.

So to recap this information for our readers: SSDs are cool. SSD's can be put to great use today if their strengths can complement your needs. However, a broader look at these new devices informs most of us can probably do without them for now.

However, looking forward, SSD's are almost certainly the "wave of the future" and are poised to become the de-facto standard technology for hard drives in the years to come.

what happens now that the megapixel wars are over?

2009-03-16T13:21:00.005-05:00

I just read an interesting article on NewScientist.com that takes a look at the future of digital imaging now that the battle for more megapixels in cameras is essentially over...

Besides camera manufacturers now giving much more attention to low-light performance and image color accuracy, there are some interesting software image processing techniques (some of which have been around for a few years in the high-end VFX industry) that are making their way into the consumer market.

check it out over at: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16770-innovation-what-next-after-the-megapixel-wars.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Intel Nehalem - just the facts ma'am

2009-03-15T11:00:00.017-05:00

In case you have just awakened from a deep coma, I'm guessing you have by now heard some noise about Intel's new processor microarchitecture - "Nehalem".

There has been a little bit of confusion about these new CPUs so I wanted to put up some facts:

"Nehalem" is Intel's internal codename for the latest "microarchtecture" on which all of it's new CPUs are based. Intel's codenames for their products while underdevelopment typically are forgotten and supplanted with the retail product names given them by Intel after they are released to the market. But "Nahalem" seems to be sticking around as the popular streetname for Intel's new family of chips. This is causing a little confusion...

Core i7 is Intel's official product name for the "desktop" variant of Nehalem. All Core i7 systems are "single socket" computers that have only one CPU. The Core i7 product line is aimed squarely at consumer PCs and "entry level" graphics workstations. Core i7 replaces the "Core 2" (including "Duo" and "Quad" and "Extreme") product line. Its Intel codename designation is (was?) "Bloomfield". Core I7 CPUs come in several different speeds and all are "quadcore" parts.

As in years-past, Intel Xeon continues as the company's official product name for their workstation and server-oriented CPUs. Xeon is sold both as the single-socket Xeon 3500 series (also codenamed "Bloomfield" - same as Core i7) as well as dual-socket Xeon 5500 platform (codename "Gainstown"). These CPUs replace the previous generation (Xeon 3300 and Xeon 5400 product lines) and are the newest high-end offerings based on Intel's Nehalem technology. Sold at different speed "bins", Xeon CPUs are sold as quadcore processors*. (*there is a dual-core variant but it will not likely be used for graphics workstations)

The new CPUs are priced about the same as the CPUs they are replacing.

Core i7 systems are available pretty much everywhere. On April 1st, many PC manufacturers will begin shipping new workstations based in the new Xeon 5500 series CPUs. (Apple began shipping Nahelem-based workstations in March.)

OK. Now that we've got that straight, let's get a little more specific about what these new processors mean for digital artists and content creation in general.

For most digital artists, Nehalem-based systems can be expected to allow their software apps and utilities to perform between 20% to 80% faster than they would on "old" intel Core 2 and Xeon 5400 equivalent CPUs. By "equivalent" I mean to to say - running at the same "clock speed" (which indicates the basic speed of the CPUs internal circuitry).

In contrast to most "consumer" software applications such as gaming and office productivity, programs used for 3D design, image rendering and other content creation-related tasks are typically "CPU intensive". This means that their performance is limited by the capability (processing speed and capacity) of the host computer's CPU.
These applications can also be "memory intensive" -meaning that their performance can be limited by the capacity (the speed and/or the amount) of RAM in the host computer.

With this being the case, digital artists will benefit enormously from the new capabilities and features of the Nehalem-based CPUs.

The most important features to understand are these:

Feature: Hyperthreading
This is a standard feature on most of the new i7 and Xeon processors. Hyperthreading allows the CPU's 4 cores to each process two streams of simultaneous computing tasks. Consequently, a quadcore CPU will present itself to your operating system and applications as having 8 available cores.

Benefit:
While the extra "virtual" cores made available through Hyperthreading won't come anywhere close to doubling the speed of your system, they do provide between 20% to 40% additional performance for highly "threaded" processes. This can greatly reduce the time required for 3D raytraced rendering, transcoding, etc. Likewise, multitasking and background processing can be maintained with very little impact on interactivity for the user.

Feature: "On-die" Memory Controllers
Compared to earlier Intel processors, the new Nehalem microarchitecture employs a radically redesigned approach to controlling the shuffling of data between the CPU and the system's RAM. Instead of residing on the motherboard, the memory controller circuitry is now inside the CPU. Without getting too technical, this simply allows for a much more efficient (faster) flow of data to and from the CPU's processing cores and data caches. Memory bandwidth for Nehalem chips is up to 350% higher compared to earlier designs.

Benefit:
Improved memory bandwidth won't do much for 3D rendering speed or most other "CPU-bound" operations. However, for "memory-bound" tasks such as 2D compositing, fluid simulation and video encoding, users will see a marked jump in interactivity and processing speed. Performance improvements for this type of computing will be anywhere from 30% up to well over 100% over the previous Intel CPUs.

There are several other new features in the Nehalem generation of CPUs that can and will positively impact the "user experience" for artists working with high-end design applications.
I consider these as secondary compared to the ones I highlighted above, but I'll briefly list them here.

QPI - Quick Path Interconnect
This is a new high-speed "data bus" that connects the CPUs and other primary motherboard components to the "outside world" via the external ports and add-in cards. These include USB, firewire, audio, Ethernet, GPU (graphics), etc.

Turbo Mode -
This is a feature on most Nehaem CPUs (but is not available on the entry-level) that allows the cpu's cores to automatically run at slightly higher speeds. This isn't likely to be something that you will necessarily notice as a user, but it can provide a slight extra "bump" in performance when you need it.

So...

The long and short of all this is: Nehalem = more flexibility for digital artists.

The extra speed gains in the new line of Intel Nehalem CPUs will translate to better performance working with most digital content design applications and suites from Autodesk and Adobe, etc. Artists will enjoy an immediate boost in productivity which will allow for more "ideation", experimentation and creative flexibility. This will, in turn, allow artists to produce higher quality work -or at least get more work completed in the same amount of time...

oh, and all your games run really well on these new machines too.

;)

redBOXX II - what's it good for?

2009-02-14T10:52:00.011-06:00

By now, most people "in the know" have heard of the RED ONE 4K Digital Cinema camera system. It is revolutionizing and "democratizing" the technology of digital filmmaking and delivering ultra-high resolution (4K) cinematography capabilities into the hands of anybody with about $40K and a dream...

For the uninitiated, deciphering the available options for RED ONE post workflows can be mind-numbingly complicated and confusing.

Well, here is some good news :

It's official - redBOXX II is officially released!

Anybody who's been working in the RED post universe for the past year or so probably has heard of redBOXX at one point or another. Those only now joining the frey may be hearing about this new platform for the first time.

So what's the buzz about redBOXX II ? And how exactly can it be used to improve the efficiency and production quality for RED-based workflows ?

Well, in simple terms, redBOXX II is a technology platform for viewing, processing and finishing RED ONE camera clips (r3d files). redBOXX II comes pre-configured with Scratch Cine (or Scratch "finishing") software - the undisputed "killer app" for processing, color grading and finishing RED footage.

redBOXX II (running the Scratch software) can provide realtime "decode and playout" of 4K RED ONE camera clips via HD-SDI @ 10bit RGB 4:4:4 image quality. It can do so for almost all 4K camera modes at "1/2-high" quality settings at up to and including 30fps (29.97fps).

For dailies and critical viewing, the redBOXX II can play back 4K camera footage to a calibrated grading monitor or digital projection system at up to 2K resolution. This allows DPs and Directors to make sure they got their shots -complete with a primary or "best light" color correction pass.

The redBOXX can take an EDL or XML "cut list" from popular editing applications such as Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer and provide frame-accurate, realtime layoff to all popular VTR formats including 10-bit formats such as HDCAM SR and D5 via dual-link HD-SDI .
This is ideal for quick turn-around of tape-based deliverables such as dailies, cutting copies or even high-quality masters and archival copies.

In addition to realtime HD-SDI output, the redBOXX II provides the worlds fastest transcoding performance that allows RED camewra data (3rd files) to be converted into other more post-friendly standard file formats such as DPX, TIFF or Quicktime. Included in these options are popular CODECs such as Avid's DNxHD and Panasonic's DVC Pro HD.

8channel AES-EBU audio outputs are standard equipment on the redBOXX II. This provides a capability to decode and playback the high-quality audio streams sometimes embedded into r3d camera footage. This audio is "sync-locked" to the SDI output and provides realtime, mutli-channel digital audio playout capabilities out of the box.

Other standard features such as eSATA, Firewire 800 and 8Gbps Fibre Channel (optional) allow redBOXX to be integrated into virtually any post or editorial environment. Additionally, there are planety of cross-platform workflows that have been developed to optimize the efficiency of MAC-Windows hybrid pipelines making use of redBOXX and Scratch Cine software capabilities.

In short, if you have a requirement to provide your client with quickest turnaround on RED-based projects while ensuring your maxiumum production (image) quality and flexibility - there is NO SUBSTITUTE for redBOXX II.

The economy stinks. so work smarter.

2009-02-03T08:51:00.021-06:00

In these challenging times, many digital design studio managers are asking themselves (and their artists) "how can we be more efficient & competitive ?"

This is "The Big Question" being pondered as companies of all sizes are feeling the pinch caused by the global economic downturn.

BOXXlabs is often asked to advise our customers in the area of workflow and resource optimization -and we have some tried and true suggestions for "best practices" that can extend your company's capabilities and help make the most of what you've got:

Use the right tools for the job. Investing in quality software with the specific features you need for the type of work you do most often is a great way to allow talent to shine and to get more work through the pipeline.

Learn and make use of efficient scene construction. There are almost always more than one way to get the aesthetic effect you are going for in your software apps. But it's easy to get "sloppy" (even without realizing it) and to construct your 3D scenes or 2D comps in ways that are perhaps quicker to setup - but which are going to take longer to render -or otherwise bog down the system unnecessarily. This is especially common for artists who taught themselves the application(s) they use. My advice is to get yourself a well-reviewed book for your chosen app- or at least go over the manufacturer's tutorials again and make sure you are using the recommended workfows and design approaches. And if you are managing a team of artists -insist on having your people pay attention to this.

Learn the tricks, shortcuts and "cheats" in your applications and use them like the "power-users" do. Reading books & online forums -and taking some inexpensive online courses are great ways to learn about these.

For 3D artists - LEARN TO USE A COMPOSOSITING APPLICATION. I can't count the number of accomplished 3D artists who have told me they will NEVER go back to rendering out everything in a single pass. Indeed, rendering out your 3D scene elements in multiple "passes" or "layers" and then compositing them together in tools such as After Effects, fusion or combustion is one of the very best ways to bring speed and flexibility to your work.

Finally, there's nothing like screaming-fast hardware for speeding up your work and allowing you to deliver new, higher levels of quality to your clients. If believe there is value in using proven, professional tools for your chosen trade, then making an investment in new workstations or dedicated rendernodes is a no-brainer!

We're all going to make it through this economic "crisis". It may not be easy -and some of us will likely receive some "batttle scars". Just remember, some of these things none of us can change.
But there are also many things that each of us have some control over.

Now go forth and make art!

this thing rocks!

2009-01-19T13:04:00.001-06:00

Some of you may not have heard, but BOXX just released a new workstation this week.

Now, I usually try to stay fairly informational and unbiased around here. And the following statement is not an exaggeration or simple marketing hype:

The 3DBOXX 4850 Extreme is the fastest uni-processor graphics workstation ever designed.

It's true. Over the past few months of internal product design and engineering here at BOXX, our teams began to see a trend from the earliest stages... In test after test, we saw system performance of this new workstation platform rivaling the fastest graphics workstations on the market. This included workstations from all major competitors at every price and configuration!

BOXXlabs uses a number of industry-standard applications and benchmark suites to evaluate and "tweak" the performance of all BOXX workstations and rendernodes.

Our tests look at a number of areas of system performance and capabilities including raw numerical processing speed, memory performance, hard drive & storage performance, thermal and acoustic footprints, etc

In our testing of the new 3DBOXX 4850 Extreme, we determined the following technical and market-related characteristics :

3DBOXX 4850 Extreme provides:

-unrivaled single-threaded performance
-unrivaled multithreaded performance for a single CPU system
-unrivaled performance for compositing applications including combustion, AE CS4 & Fusion
-unrivaled price-performance compared to any major competitor including Apple, HP & DELL

This machine simply rocks.

That is all.

greetings CG pros and enthusiasts alike!

2009-01-19T12:36:00.004-06:00

**UPDATE 2010**
As of October 2009 I am not working at BOXX, and will no longer be updating this blog.

I've started my own company and can now be reached
through the following sites :

adamglick.net

http://www.linkedin.com/in/adamglick3000

Welcome to the first installment of BOXXtalk - the official BOXXlabs blog and tech news review.

BOXXtalk is a forum for the sharing and discussion of trends, workflows and emerging technologoes in the CG, VFX and digital content creation universe.

My name is Adam Glick, chief technologist here at BOXXlabs -and your host here at BOXXtalk.

Here we will discuss the very latest in the exciting and ever-changing world of computer graphics technologies for the creative professional.