DreamWorks is going to open-source their in-house 'MoonRay' renderer very soon; it has been the driving force behind their movies since 'How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.'
The renderer was also used for making the latest Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) 🤯
Plans for making MoonRay's code open were announced last year in August, with a planned release date sometime later in 2022. But we hadn't heard anything substantial from their side since.
Until now.
They shared a status update at Linux Foundation's recent Academy Software Foundation Open-Source Forum event.
What was shared?: They have shared that they are very close to fully releasing MoonRay's code, and have also launched the official documentation site for it.
Furthermore, they shared a new promotional video showing off MoonRay's capabilities by rendering Intel's recently released 4004 Moore Lane USD Scene.
The scene was rendered using CPU denoising from Intel's Open Image Denoiser, which is already integrated into MoonRay.
Open-source, Why?: To put it in the words of Andrew Pearce, VP of Global Technology at DreamWorks:
The appetite for rendering at scale grows each year, and MoonRay is set to meet that need.
We expect to see the code base grow stronger with community involvement as DreamWorks continues to demonstrate our commitment to open source.
So, they expect more people to be involved in the development of MoonRay when the codebase opens.
When combined with the efficiency and scalability of MoonRay, you have a very accessible and powerful tool at hand that can go a long way in establishing new benchmarks in 3D rendering.
How to access?: MoonRay is set to be available under the Apache 2.0 license on the OpenMoonRay.org website.
Code for almost all the significant bits will be made available, including code for their 'Arras' multi-machine, multi-context renderer that maximizes the use of the available computational power.
Considering DreamWorks animation is known for popular franchises like Kung Fu Panda, its in-house tool should be immensely useful as an open-source tool while allowing the community to make it even better. ✨ What do you think? Tell us in the comments down below.
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