What is Clarisse iFX...? (Renderer...?)
polycounter lvl 9
What exactly is Isotropix Clarisse iFX...? What can it do, and what is it used for...? I heard the name for years but just recently look into it and it seems almost impossible :-)... My stupid and limited understanding is that Isotropix Clarisse iFX is a standalone application, you import your various "elements" (not just polygon geometry at all) and than it acts like a "scene assembler", with instant FAST viewport performance, that lets you preview EVERYTHING in full "shape" - no more bounding boxes or sparse point cloud likee you would get with "traditional solutions" like using 3ds max with scattering plugins like multiscatter or Forest Pack Pro. It beats them to ground, its better, faster, with instant FULL preview (no bounding boxes). It also acts like a FAST GPU renderer, better then redshift, octane or VRay GPU...? Bette or on par with those. You can also do your full lighting of the scene (or rather BIG outdoor enviroment) in it. It also acts like a "final" renderer so you can QUICKLY do final render in it and get your various passes (diffuse, lighting, reflection etc.) from it, to your favourite compositing software (like Nuke for example)...
Is this all true? Did i understand Isotropix Clarisse iFX correctly? Can it do all these things? Can it do even more? For example can you texture your models there or do you have to import the models already textured from different applications?
(Also - its used mainly in Film industry or Cinematics in game, theres the main use case...?)
Is this all true? Did i understand Isotropix Clarisse iFX correctly? Can it do all these things? Can it do even more? For example can you texture your models there or do you have to import the models already textured from different applications?
(Also - its used mainly in Film industry or Cinematics in game, theres the main use case...?)
Replies
Use case
Clarisse iFX is great at a couple of things, best in class great. In terms of building large geometrical layouts, it has no peer. Imagine doing work without thinking about polygon count, EVER. That's Clarisse iFX. Imagine being able to use the highest LOD of every asset you have, that's Clarisse iFX. Imagine being able to WORK in a progressively rendered view WITH those same models and doing lighting, THAT'S Clarisse iFX.
Yes you do layout, basic animation (not character), look development, lighting and rendering in Clarisse iFX.
Much like a game engine, for final rendering projects, you produce/acquire your assets from wherever you see fit. Animated characters exported from Maya or Max. Static geometry from Kitbash or Megascans. You will apply the textures in Clarisse iFX. Ideally you will use Maps from Substance which plug directly into the Disney Principles shader. You will then light and render your results. You can render them in passes to composite them back together, OR NOT, it's totally up to you. Clarisse iFX is a sandbox.
Game studios are using it to produce a couple things. Sometimes you need to show things happening in a game that there is NO way to do IN GAME. Each studio has different names for this type of work, and I could talk all day about it. But I'll just let the guys who made Gear of War tell you.
https://www.isotropix.com/news/customer-stories/behind-the-scenes-gears-of-war-5
For use in game you can produce assets that you will export from Clarisse iFX for use in Unreal or Unity as an Alembic file. You will bake the result of your build in Clarisse iFX into a texture to use in engine. Or you will produce animations like I talked about above to display "out of map" events in a game engine.
I hope this helps you understand. Feel free to download the PLE and try some things out. I'm having a great time right now using free scans from Sketchfab to produce some really nice images.