Brazil Rendering System was a proprietary commercial plugin for 3D Studio Max, Autodesk VIZ and Rhinoceros 3D. Steve Blackmon and Scott Kirvan started developing Brazil R/S while working as the R&D team of Blur Studio, and formed the company SplutterFish to sell and market Brazil. It was capable of photorealistic rendering using fast ray tracing and global illumination.

Brazil R/S
Developer(s)SplutterFish LLC
Initial release1.0 / September 3, 2002; 22 years ago (2002-09-03)[1]
Final release
2.0 / November 29, 2007; 16 years ago (2007-11-29)[2]
Preview release
3.0 beta / August 9, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-08-09)[3]
TypeRendering system
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.splutterfish.com
PowerVR Brazil SDK
Developer(s)Imagination Technologies
Final release
1.1
PlatformOpenRL
TypeRendering system
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.caustic.com

It was used by computer graphics artists to generate content for print, online content, broadcast solutions and feature films. Some major examples are Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith,[4] Sin City,[5] Superman Returns[6] and The Incredibles.[7]

Imagination Technologies announced Brazil's end-of-life, effective May 14, 2012.[8]

PowerVR Brazil SDK

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Caustic Visualizer
Developer(s)Imagination Technologies
Final release
1.3
PlatformMaya,[9] SketchUp
TypeRendering system
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.getvisualizer.com
Neon
Developer(s)Robert McNeel & Associates
Final release
1.0 SR1[10] / May 17, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-05-17)[10]
PlatformRhinoceros 3D
TypeRendering system
LicenseProprietary
Websitev5.rhino3d.com/group/neon

Splutterfish was acquired by Caustic Graphics in 2008[11] (which was later acquired by Imagination Technologies in December 2010.)[12]

After Splutterfish's acquisition by Caustic Graphics, they began a rewrite of Brazil r/s using Caustic's OpenRL API to leverage Caustic's raytracing hardware. The new render engine was initially publicly called the "Brazil 3.0 SDK"[13] but was later renamed the "PowerVR Brazil SDK".) [14]

The PowerVR Brazil SDK was used in Caustic Visualizer, a real-time rendering plugin for Maya and SketchUp, and Neon, a viewport rendering plugin for Rhinoceros 3D.[9] Caustic Visualizer for Maya and R2100/R2500 hardware were EOLed on June 13, 2014[15][16] and Caustic Visualizer for SketchUp was EOLed on March 23, 2015.[17]

In 2015 Imagination Technologies introduced the PowerVR Wizard GPU architecture, that integrated Imagination's hardware raytracing cores. Wizard replaced the OpenRL API with vendor-specific OpenGL ES raytracing extensions. The Brazil SDK, using its internal name 'Resin', was updated to demo the new architecture.[18]

References

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  1. ^ "SplutterFish Announces Worldwide Availability of Brazil Rendering System v1.0". CG Society. 3 September 2002. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  2. ^ "Brazil r/s v.2". CG Society. 29 November 2007.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "Imagination previews Brazil 3.0 Beta running on OpenRL at SIGGRAPH 2011". Imagination Technologies. 9 August 2011.
  4. ^ Desowitz, Bill. "Revenge of the Sith: Part 2 — Digital Environments Strike Back". VFXworld.
  5. ^ Crabtree, Sheigh. "'Sin'-ful effects". Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2005-04-17. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  6. ^ "Brazil r/s 2.0 Announcement Press Release". Splutterfish LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  7. ^ "Inside the Incredibles". Computer Arts. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  8. ^ "End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement". 14 May 2012. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  9. ^ a b Can raytracing really kill raster graphics? CG Channel February 5, 2013
  10. ^ a b Neon change log Robert McNeel & Associates
  11. ^ "Important Announcement from Caustic Graphics". 4 December 2009. Archived from the original on 7 April 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  12. ^ "Imagination Technologies plc – Acquisition Announcement" (Press release). 4 December 2010. Archived from the original on 14 March 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  13. ^ Imagination previews Brazil 3.0 Beta running on OpenRL at SIGGRAPH 2011 Imagination Technologies August 9, 2011
  14. ^ [1] Imagination Technologies
  15. ^ End-of-Life Announcement - Caustic Series2 Ray Tracing Accelerator Cards & Visualizer for Autodesk Maya Imagination Technologies
  16. ^ Imagination retires Caustic Visualizer for Maya CG Channel July 7th, 2014
  17. ^ Visualizer for SketchUp - Official End-of-Product Announcement Imagination Technologies
  18. ^ Ray Tracing on the Wizard GPU Archived 2016-10-14 at the Wayback Machine Imagination Technologies 2016
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