A 100% free API to bridge Redsdk and Parasolid

Redway3d is pleased to announce Redparasolid, a new API which can be used to connect Redsdk and Parasolid, the well known 3D solid modeling component software used as the foundation of Siemens PLM’s NX and Solid Edge products. It is the second bridge Redway3d offers to its Redsdk customers, considering the one already available for the Teigha API from the Open Design Alliance.

Redparasolid is composed of a complete API delivered with its full source code and a ready-to-use viewer to directly load and display Parasolid models with the Redsdk graphics engine. This way, Parasolid users can quickly see the performance increase they can get by using Redsdk inside their own software.

Redparasolid is offered 100% free of charge. For further information, you can contact either Redway3d or Siemens Plm.

Faster anti-aliasing with a better quality

The Redway3d engineers worked a lot on the rendering quality vs. processing time ratio, to raise it by 20% in average. This improvement was realized by a better sampling efficiency and also several modifications of the anti-aliasing algorithms.

As a consequence, Redsdk users can now raise even more the number of samples for area lighting, material glossiness and anti-aliasing. Then, they can precisely tune the performance vs. noise balance through the adaptation amount and threshold ray-tracer parameters.

Printing and high resolution renderings are now within reach of anybody!

More built-in shaders

Redsdk 3.0 offers two new built-in shaders, as shown on the picture to the right.

At the top, you can see the "viewport shader". This shader is primarily used for the display of a software application viewport in "basic" mode. This mode provides the best drawing speed possible for a given hardware configuration and is used when the frame rate is the key graphic factor, as when working on geometries and or animations for example.

At the bottom, there is an illustration of the logo shader. While Redsdk support shading trees (where you combine materials together), it can be tricky to add a simple logo to an existing material, specially when programmers re-use materials designed by other people. This shader solves this problem, by controlling directly the look of the logo, without applying the effects of the materials which may exist underneath.

Like the other Redsdk built-in shaders, these two new shaders work both with the 3D hardware acceleration if there is one available in the end-user machine or in pure CPU mode (case of the top part), as it is often the case for software deployed on the web or running in virtualized environments.

Support of stereoscopy improved

Previously with Redsdk, programmers were doing stereoscopy by compositing layers, one for the left eye and another one for the right eye. This layering mechanism could appear a bit complex, specially when layers were simultaneously used for other purposes, as hiding / showing geometries or setting different rendering options.

Redsdk 3.0 now offers extensions to directly manage the stereoscopy (both in and out). The Redway3d engineers also validated the latest stereoscopic hardware available (like the NVIDIA 3D Vision Wireless Glasses Kit)

New materials added to Redmaterials

Together with the release of Redsdk 3.0, the ready-to-use library of materials developed by Redway3d is extended with:

• A new category of materials for fabrics
• Tens of more wood materials

New hardware and custom certifications

As always, Redway3d is continuously updating Redsdk to benefit from the latest GPU models and features and thus driver recommendations are updated from one release to the next one.

With Redsdk 3.0, around 100 new GPUs were added to the hardware list:
• AMD FirePro v3900, v4900, v5900, v7900 and their corresponding Mobility & Radeon versions
• NVIDIA Quadro 600, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 and their corresponding M & GeForce versions
• AMD switchable graphics
• NVIDIA Optimus graphics