Win Mac Linux Boujou Three, the third generation of 2d3's 3D camera matchmoving software, takes advantage of a new feature-tracking engine. With improved accuracy and performance, the latest version is effective in tracking thousands of features in each frame of a shot, despite motion blur, variable lighting, and a fast-moving camera. Moreover, it is designed to work well with sand, snow, and sky shots having little detail to track and shots with repetitive structures or patterns. Adding to the upgrade are a new automatic solver for lens distortion, automated tracking of free-move zoom shots, and path-smoothing algorithms. Boujou Three also sports a lens distortion plug-in for Shake, a new timeline design, and support for a wider range of bit depths and file formats, including Maya IFF. Boujou Three is available at a cost of $10,000 per license.
2d3; www.2d3.com
Rendering
Win ART VPS, Ltd. has updated its Render-Pipe software with support for the company's own Pure and RenderDrive raytracing hardware systems. Moreover, the plug-in gains support for Discreet's 3ds max 7, various Maya 6 render nodes, bitmap files measuring 200mb or larger, and high-dynamic range imaging (HDRI). Rounding out the upgraded software are faster transfer times for meshes having up to 30 million polygons and a new light-sampling engine designed to adjust lighting effects as necessary. Free to current ART VPS software subscribers, the RenderPipe upgrade is offered to non-subscribers for $360.
ART VPS, Ltd.; www.artvps.com
Display
Mintek Digital has launched the DTV Series, a family of HDTV-ready flat-panel displays. To date, the new product line boasts a 17-inch DTV-17 and 23-inch DTV-23, both offering a wide viewing angle of nearly 180 degrees. The two models feature a built-in, slot-load DVD player, HDTV-ready television tuners, Memory Stick and SD Memory Card readers, and a USB port. Priced at $800 and $1500, respectively, the DTV-17 and DTV-23 also sport DVI, VGA, PC audio, S-video, and two-channel audio inputs, as well as AV input/output.
Mintek Digital; www.mintek.com
Storage
Ciara Technologies has introduced the VXR-96, the latest product in its line of VXRack ultra-dense servers. A compact cluster technology, VXR-96 is capable of hosting up to 96 of the company's VX-Blades inside an 84-inch rack enclosure. As a result, the 7-foot VXR-96 is able to accommodate a maximum 192 Intel Xeon processors with a 800mhz system bus based on Intel's new E7520 chipset, up to 1.5tb of DDR/DDR2 ECC/registered memory, a maximum 24tb of aggregate local storage, and 192gb of network throughput.
Ciara Technologies; www.ciara-tech.com