NVIDIA Corporation today announced NVIDIA Gelato Pro 2.2 rendering software, the Company's advanced GPU-accelerated rendering software for professionals, is available as a no-cost download at Gelatozone. Well suited for rendering of 3D digital content and design, Gelato Pro software now replaces the basic version of Gelato software, which was previously available directly from NVIDIA.

"NVIDIA Gelato Pro 2.2 software is extremely powerful GPU-accelerated rendering software and we are excited to support the creative community by making it freely available," said Dominick Spina, senior product manager, Digital Film Group, NVIDIA. "Now all artists and designers with NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards can enhance their production pipelines with Gelato Pro-without a licensing fee."

Gelato Pro 2.2 will be the final version of NVIDIA Gelato rendering software. Moving forward, the NVIDIA Gelato and mental images rendering teams will focus on the development of mental ray software, reinforcing NVIDIA's investment in, and commitment to, accelerated rendering.

Gelato software is a GPU-accelerated, final-frame renderer for the creation of high-quality computer-generated images using NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards. Originally developed to render film and broadcast visual effects and animation, Gelato software can be used with 3D software applications that require advanced rendering such as game development, CAD, industrial design, and architecture.

Features of the Gelato renderer include sub-pixel antialiasing, true displacement, high-quality motion blur, depth of field, support for NURBS, subdivision surfaces, particles, and ray tracing, including global illumination effects and ambient occlusion. The fully programmable Frantic Films' Amaretto plug-in provides advanced rendering functionality with Autodesk's 3ds Max software; complementing the Mango plug-in for rendering with Autodesk's Maya software.

Features of Gelato Pro 2.2 software, which until now required payment of a license fee to access, include the Sorbetto interactive relighting engine, network parallel rendering, multi-threading, 64-bit support, and DSO shadeops. Gelato Pro also supports Joe Alter's Shave and a Haircut software for computer-generated hair and fur effects and includes support for Autodesk Maya 8.5 and 3ds Max 9.0, offering improved stereo rendering, fog lights, and significant performance improvements.

NVIDIA Gelato Pro 2.2 software supports Windows XP and Linux operating systems and runs on any NVIDIA Quadro graphics solution. Gelato is available for download at www.nvidia.com/gelatozone . As a freely downloadable product, NVIDIA will no longer be developing or supporting the Gelato software products.