To highlight how important virtual reality (VR) is to NVIDIA it was included as one of the main announcements in the introductory keynote at the start of this year’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC), and the CEO of NVIDIA announced the graphics card makers newest development in VR, Iray VR, which enhances photorealism.

Iray VR lets developers create environments that appear photorealistic, such as the inside of a car, modern loft, or the interior of NVIDIA’s unfinished Silicon Valley campus “with uncanny accuracy”. Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, previewed the interiors, showcasing the ability of Iray VR, saying “It’s utterly beautiful,” and reiterating the previously made point during the keynote: “Iray VR is going to be unbelievable for people designing cars, for people architecting buildings and many other areas.”

Designers can refine designs faster due to its host of rendering capabilities, such as interactive ray tracing, accurate material representation, and scaling from desktop to datacentre.

For those without a supercomputer, there is also the Iray VR Lite. Jen-Hsun explained during the keynote: “We want people to enjoy VR, irrespective of the computing device they have. So, we’ve also made Iray VR Lite for those who don’t have a supercomputer.

“It can’t render 3D as beautifully as Iray. But with a press of a button it creates a photosphere that’s completely ray-traced. You download Iray plugins and an Android viewer, like Google Cardboard. And we have this experience on the show floor at GTC.”

During GTC NVIDIA will be showcasing two experiences: an Everest VR experience that recreates Mount Everest pixel by pixel, using PhysX to simulate swirling snow, which can be seen at GTC’s VR Village; and a VR experience of Mars using photos taken by NASA and with the help of Fusion Media, reconstructing eight kilometres of Mars surface where the Rover is physically simulated.

For the latest during GTC stay with VRFocus.

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