OTOY opens OctaneRender Cloud beta for "Render the Metaverse" virtual reality art contestants, enabling free, rapid cloud rendering of VR scenes

OctaneRender Cloud provides contestants up to 25x the computational power of local rendering(1); delivers dramatically faster results at no charge for CG artists using OctaneRender and OctaneVR

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OTOY Inc.

Jun 04, 2015, 12:00 ET

LOS ANGELES, June 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- As OTOY Inc.'s "Render the Metaverse" virtual reality art competition enters its second month, the company today announced the start of its OctaneRender Cloud beta, enabling contestants to render their 360-degree panoramic VR scene entries in the cloud for free. Artists using OctaneRender and OctaneVR can now benefit from dramatically faster cloud-based GPU rendering using up to 25x the computation power of local rendering¹ to produce their scenes in fractions of the time, all at no charge. With the additional resources, artists can also run multiple jobs or increase scene quality, all while sparing local resources that would otherwise be tied up during local rendering.

"Today's beta marks a milestone in OTOY's efforts to bring cloud-based GPU rendering to artists, designers, engineers, and small businesses everywhere who might not otherwise have the means to access powerful rack-based rendering solutions," said Jules Urbach, founder and CEO, OTOY. "We believe that cloud-based rendering is the future. We're starting with high resolution stereo cube maps today, and view this as the first step to rendering animations in the cloud, and ultimately the rendering of fully navigable light field animations."

Contestants in the "Render the Metaverse" virtual reality art contest can make use of OctaneRender Cloud by visiting orc.otoy.com. After signing in with an existing OTOY login, users will be prompted to upload an ORBX scene file of their stereo cube map and set the quality of the rendering. When the render is complete, users can download the output and submit it via the contest website at vr.otoy.com.

OctaneRender and OctaneVR will support greater integration with OctaneRender Cloud in the coming weeks with the addition of an in-app option to render scenes using OctaneRender Cloud rather than local resources. OctaneRender Cloud will also support the rendering of fully navigable light field animations in the future, for rapid production of high quality VR content.

About OTOY Inc.
OTOY Inc. is the definitive cloud graphics company, pioneering technology that is redefining content creation and delivery for media and entertainment organizations around the world. OTOY's Academy Award®-winning technology is used by leading visual effects studios, artists, animators, designers, architects, and engineers, providing unprecedented creative freedom, new levels of realism, and new economics in content creation and distribution powered by the cloud. For more information, visit www.otoy.com.

1. Claim of 25x the computational power of local rendering based on a typical workstation configuration and may not be representative of all configurations.

Additional Resources:

See all of the "Render the Metaverse" VR art contest details and follow along on the contest website here.
See the winning entries for the first month of the "Render the Metaverse" VR art contest here.
Test drive and download the "Render the Metaverse" contest entries online here.
Try OctaneVR live in your browser here.
See screenshots of panoramic VR photos on OTOY's blog here.
Read more about OctaneVR on OTOY's blog here.
Read more about OctaneRender Cloud on OTOY's blog here.
Follow OTOY on Facebook and Twitter.