US technology giant Nvidia has updated its virtual reality (VR) solutions with help from a major brand in the XR industry, it was announced this week at the ACM SIGGRAPH 2021 event.
The Santa Clara-based company told audiences it would collaborate with Google Cloud to boost high-rate XR streaming for its CloudXR platform.
Nvidia’s joint effort with Google Cloud will see the former’s CloudXR technologies integrate with Nvidia RTX Virtual Workstations on the latter, allowing designers and users to access data across XR environments, including virtual (VR), augmented (AR), and mixed reality (MR).
The company, famous for its graphic processing unit (GPU) cards and other technologies, partnered with Masterpiece Studio’s Pro platform, which facilitates 3D content for PC-tethered headsets such as Valve Index and HTC Vive, among others.
Artists can use the platform to stream content and collaborate on character designs, backed by Google Cloud and Nvidia’s CloudXR technologies.
Rob Martin, Chief Architect for Gaming at Google, said:
“NVIDIA CloudXR technology delivered via Google Cloud’s global private fiber optic network provides an optimized, high-quality user experience for remotely streamed VR experiences. This unique combination unlocks the ability to easily stream work from anywhere using NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation. With NVIDIA CloudXR on Google Cloud, the future of VR workflows can be more collaborative, intuitive, and productive”
Jonathan Gagne, Chief Executive at Masterpiece Studio, said creators should “have the freedom of working from anywhere” without needing to tether to workstations to work on characters or 3D renders in VR, adding:
“With NVIDIA CloudXR, our customers will be able to power their creative workflows in high-quality immersive environments, from any location, on any device”
Dan O’Brien, General Manager at HTC Americas, added his company was excited to demonstrate how “complex creative workflows and high-quality graphics” could unite for the “ultimate immersive experience” on the cloud.
Nvidia’s CloudXR platform is open for Early Access, where developers can register for Google Cloud integration later in the year.
The news comes as Nvidia stunned audiences at a second SIGGRAPH 2021 session, where Richard Kerris, Vice-President of Omniverse Development, said the US company would build an Omniverse capable of hosting “exchanges, market economies, and other things in the virtual world.”
He added the new platform would aim to join digital design engineers, enterprises, and brands to connect multiple metaverses, adding Blender users would move to the Omniverse in the near future.
The ACM SIGGRAPH is the world’s top event for interdisciplinary education for computer graphics and interactive techniques and has run for its 48th instalment this year.
The event will also host numerous keynote speeches from experts and thought leaders in the field, and aims to showcase dozens of emerging artists’ work via its Immersive Pavilion and VR Theater.
For more information, kindly visit https://s2021.siggraph.org/
