Autodesk is now shipping Autodesk Beast 2011 middleware, the first release of the product since the company's acquisition of Illuminate Labs in July 2010. Autodesk Beast middleware helps development teams aesthetically enhance their games with a pre-computed global illumination (GI) lighting solution, while helping to avoid complicated and time-consuming lighting setups and to minimize runtime cost.
Autodesk Beast 2011 offers three key components that work together to help decrease iteration time and enhance aesthetic quality:
LiquidLight
The core baking technology for advanced GI and dynamic relighting of characters
eRnsT
An interactive editor that helps artists control and explore lighting setups
DistriBeast
A distribution engine for running renders on multiple machines
Key features in Autodesk Beast 2011 include Precomputed GI;Prebake lighting for platform and engine independence, resulting in greater flexibility and portability. Aesthetic quality and efficient workflows; Adjust overall scene lighting without bounce lights or ambient fills typically used to "fake" global illumination. Robust API; Integrate Beast into your game engine with a simplified interface.