Autodesk Looks To The Cloud With Otoy Investment

Major development tools company Autodesk announced today that it has partnered with cloud-based rendering company Otoy, and plans to integrate the company's technologies into existing Autodesk tools for use in films and video games. While the company did not reveal whether all of its tools will be affected by the partnership, Autodesk said it invested an undisclosed amount to help Otoy accelerate the development of its suite of rendering technologies. Otoy's technologies include two 3D rendering tools, Octane Render and Brigade, which both serve to enable "path traced" rendering in video games and films. The company also created the Academy Award-winning LightStage capture technology, which was used in films such as Avatar and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. On top of these tools, Otoy offers a cloud-based mesh streaming program that allows users to access their applications remotely, using another computer for remote rendering power. Other Otoy tools include a GPU-powered compression technology and a third-party developer SDK. "We are pleased to be working with Otoy based on their strong track record with rendering, capture, compression and GPGPU technologies," said Autodesk VP Brian Mathews. "Our investment marks the next significant step in Autodesk's efforts to advance rendering, cloud, and compression technologies for use in a variety of industries."