Review: MachStudio Pro 2

From the feature film Cinderella: The Gal from Out West, France's first stereoscopic 3D film to be released in 2011

(Originally published in 3D Artist Issue 27)

Price $0 (free)

Website

http://www.studiogpu.com/

Turn on MachStudio Pro 2, tune in to GPU, and render out.

Recent developments in GPU technology are becoming a counter-culture shift away from expensive and resource-intensive traditional CG pipelines. Part of this revolution is MachStudio Pro 2 from StudioGPU which serves as a real-time compositing and finalising system for lighting, materials, camera work and final rendering.

In this latest incarnation there are many improvements but, thankfully, the UI layout remains largely unchanged, which is a testament to its user-friendly and intuitive design. For greater flexibility, key among the new features is integrated export to Pixar RenderMan and mental ray with support for mental images MetaSL, allowing a CPU-GPU hybrid rendering framework for extremely high-quality results while still reducing render time. This approach marks a change in focus from GPU exclusivity and offers artists the freedom to take advantage of MSP2 for passes suited to fast GPU rendering and offline intensive CPU passes.

New refinements have been introduced to the AO system for improved accuracy and quality. Directional and Spot lights have been added along with volumetric and screen space real-time GI, and Direct X 11 is harnessed for improved efficiency. Other enhancements include improved Python support, unified pass rendering and workflow improvements. These welcome additions give the potential to render frames shockingly fast, easing well-deserved pressure off the render farm.

Bucking the trend of previous versions, that carried a hefty price tag, the full version is available for free. Exporting assets to MSP2 is made easy via FBX support or by using straightforward plug-ins provided for several popular applications, but NURBS, particles, and hair and fur exports are not supported. With a Blender plug-in exporter on the cards, artists with access to a mid-range or higher PC with a Direct X 11-compliant graphics card are unrestricted financially from utilising MSP2. However, Mac and Linux users will be left out in the cold.

MSP2 is optimised for ATI FirePro v8800 or higher and with ATI’s Eyefinity you can have your 3D application, MSP2 and Photoshop or compositor on separate monitors and work your shot across screens through your entire pipeline. It’s possible to use other video cards including NVIDIA with at least 1GB on-board memory although you’ll lose support for hardware tessellation and real-time displacement which is exclusive to ATI.

With the power to turn minutes into seconds, MSP2 has a lot to offer any level of user, on any budget, who hates waiting for renders. Aside from being Windows only, leaving Mac and Linux users out in the cold, its hard to find fault with MSP2.

Summary

While it is easy to create quick images out of MSP2 there is a bit of a learning curve for creating great images.

Create V-Ray style renders in minutes rather than hours.