Montreal-based Fabric Software announced that it will preview two new features for its Fabric Engine development platform for visual effects tools at SIGGRAPH in August – visual programming and Splice for 3ds Max.
Visual programming will be incorporated into Fabric Engine 2.0, scheduled to be released later this year. It will enable TDs to learn and use Fabric Engine more easily because the code is represented as graphical elements that can be manipulated in a visually interactive way. Version 2.0 will also build on the GPU compute capabilities released last month that allow for the same code to be executed on both the CPU and GPU, without the need for additional coding.
The Splice API allows studio teams to expose Fabric to other applications, such as Autodesk’s Maya, Softimage, and now 3ds Max, as well as renderers or their own in-house custom dependency graphs. It enables artists to benefit from Fabric Engine’s tools and real-time rendering capabilities without learning a new application. Splice support for 3ds Max will be available in version 1.13, currently in beta testing and scheduled for release in August.
