OctaneRender 4 to support PowerVR ray tracing

The next version of rendering tool OctaneRender 4 will be compatible with Imagination’s PowerVR ray tracing technology, parent firm OTOY has announced.

According to the partnership, pairing the software with hardware that supports PowerVR can result in the ability to trace more than 100 million rays per second in scenes.

This subsequently boosts the tool’s performance in Octane-enabled engines, such as Unity and Unreal Engine, and tools, including Autodesk 3DS Max and Maya, LightWave, Cinema4D, Blender, Modo, Adobe After Effects and Nuke.

The update also reportedly makes Octane ten times more efficient in terms of power usage than in its previous version, making it increasingly suitable for use in portable hardware for mobile, VR and AR devices.

“Accelerated ray tracing is a game changer that will massively disrupt GPU rendering,” said OTOY CEO Jules Urbach. “It is a major reason why OTOY is merging Brigade and OctaneRender 4 next year, which will bring real-time cinematic path tracing to both Unity and Unreal Engine.

“We feel this is a huge milestone in helping the games industry move beyond legacy rasterisation frameworks built on OpenGL, Vulkan or DirectX.

“We’re excited about the possibilities this will open up for true physically correct rendering in gaming, VR and mixed/augmented reality.”