Real-Time Shading Technology Leverages the Power of ATI's Workstation Graphics Accelerators to Streamline Creative Process

ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY, NASDAQ:ATYT), today announced that its ASHLI real-time interactive shading technology has been integrated into the latest version of Alias award-winning 3D animation, modeling, rendering and visual effects software, Maya 7. In the past, content creators have relied on software rendering to produce photorealistic images representing the final render. With hardware accelerated shading, users can now manipulate these shaders interactively, allowing them to preview and make changes on the fly, ultimately saving time and increasing productivity.

One of Maya's key areas of focus is workflow, so artists? creativity can take hold and drive the project. With real-time previews of shaders, users in game development, film, video or broadcast have a new flexibility in how they create images, said Shai Hinitz, senior product manager for Alias MotionBuilder, mental ray for Maya, and Maya. By incorporating ASHLI technology as a plug-in directly in the software, Maya users can seamlessly incorporate advanced hardware accelerated shaders for improved rendering interactivity.

As graphics accelerators have become increasingly powerful, more and more information and work can be offloaded to the graphics processing unit (GPU), said Joe Chien, General Manager of Workstation Products, ATI Technologies Inc. The beauty of the ASHLI plug-in is that by leveraging the GPU and the Maya Shading Network, users can visualize objects like in the final render but have the flexibility of working on the object interactively in shaded mode saving critical time in the production process, while producing high quality images.

The new ASHLI plug-in is included on Windows and Linux versions of Maya 7 software.

ASHLI technology has also been implemented in Autodesk 3dsmax 7 and later, enabling users to experience real-time shaders directly in the 3dsmax viewport. By employing HLSL (High Level Shading Language) 3D artists will be able to render very complex and shader-rich environments in real time, leveraging the power of today?s graphics accelerators

For further information regarding ATI's ASHLI technology, please visit www.ati.com/developers/ashli.html