Enhancements to Academy Award® winning rendering technology mental ray® 3.2 soon available in CATIA® and ENOVIAT V5
Berlin, Germany and Paris, France - July 29, 2003 - mental images GmbH & Co. KG and Dassault Systèmes (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) today announced the extension of their Original Software Development agreement (OSD), for embedding the mental rayr rendering technologies in Dassault Systèmes product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions.
For almost ten years, the highly successful development partnership between Dassault Systèmes and mental images has brought continuous improvement and software engineering creativity to the manufacturing market with integrated realistic rendering simulation capabilities. The partnership was the first OSD agreement between Dassault Systèmes and an independent software developing company. Most recently, the partners have collaborated to provide rendering technologies integrated in the Photo Studio 2 (PHS) and Photo Studio Optimizer (PSO) Version 5 (V5) products offered by Dassault Systèmes.
PHS and PSO enable visualization of the final product exactly as it will appear in reality based on the original CAD data, and authorize product quality assessments early in the design phase. They leverage the strength of version 3.2 of mental rayr, the world's most advanced and powerful rendering software with outstanding quality image generation and enhanced scalable performance.
mental ray also provides the power of global illumination and caustics simulation inside PSO Users can simulate light behavior in Version 5 in a physically correct manner to obtain unparalleled levels of visual richness and realism. In addition, PSO will support the mental ray Satellite feature that enables users to distribute and hence accelerate the rendering process across networks of homogeneous or heterogeneous machines. This cost-reducing feature shortens response times and facilitates the interactive workflow for all types of users, including small engineering and design departments.
"We are extremely pleased about the long-term extension of the agreement between mental images and Dassault Systèmes," said Rolf Herken, president and director R&D, mental images. "After nearly ten years of close cooperation, we are honored by the trust that Dassault Systèmes places in our technology and our ongoing research to provide visualization and lighting simulation solutions for our customers in the manufacturing, motion picture, interactive entertainment, and learning application sectors."
"Greater visual realism in virtual product simulations -- this is what the development partnership with mental images brings to our customers," said Dominique Florack, Executive vice president Research and Development, Dassault Systèmes. "We are about to celebrate ten years of rewarding collaboration and an impressive illustration of "built-in reality" with the exceptional level of realism attainable in our PLM solutions."
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored mental images with a Technical Achievement Award on March 1, 2003 for mental ray referring to it as "a highly programmable computer-graphics renderer incorporating ray tracing and global illumination to realistically simulate the behavior of light in computer-generated imagery."
About OSD partners
The Dassault Systèmes OSD Partnership program creates long-term, close development relationships between Dassault Systèmes and industry-leading software developers. The OSD partner acts as an external R&D division to Dassault Systèmes' R&D organization and provides technology and support to be fully integrated into Dassault Systèmes products. The open CAA V5 (Component Application Architecture) allows extension and integration of this solution within multiple enterprise environments.
About mental images
mental images, founded in 1986, is the recognized international leader in providing rendering software to the entertainment, computer-aided design, scientific visualization, architecture, and other industries that require sophisticated images. The main product of the company is the high performance photo realistic rendering software mental ray which is capable of running on a wide variety of platforms ranging from workstations and networks of workstations to parallel supercomputers, producing images of unsurpassed realism. mental images GmbH & Co. KG is a privately held company based in Berlin, Germany, with a subsidiary in San Francisco, California. Information about mental images is available at http://www.mentalimages.com
About Dassault Systèmes
As world leader in PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) solutions, the Dassault Systèmes group brings value to more than 65,000 customers in 80 countries. A pioneer in the 3D software market since 1981, Dassault Systèmes develops and markets PLM application software and services that support industrial processes and provide a 3D vision of the entire life cycle of products from conception to retirement. It's offering includes integrated PLM solutions for product development (CATIA, ENOVIA, DELMIA, SMARTEAM), general-use 3D solutions (SolidWorks), and 3D components (SPATIAL). Dassault Systèmes is listed on the Nasdaq (DASTY) and Euronext Paris (#13065, DSY.PA) stock exchanges. For more information, visit www.3ds.com.
mental images Press Contacts:
Rachel Yarmey (North America) - Sparkpr - 87 McLea Court - San Francisco, CA 94103, USA - +1 (415) 962-8200 x241 - rachel@sparkpr.com - www.sparkpr.com
Silvia Hanko (other areas) Fasanenstrasse 81, D 10623 Berlin, Germany - +49 (30) 31 59 97-0 - office@mental.com
Dassault Systèmes Press Contacts:
Anthony Maréchal (EMEA) - +33 1 55 49 84 21 - anthony_marechal@ds-fr.com
Derek Lane (Americas) - +1 818 673 2243 - Derek_Lane@ds-us.com
Dassault Systèmes Investor Contacts:
Emma Rutherford, Harriet Keen - Financial Dynamics - +44 207 831 3113