AMD today outlined new solutions for professional VR content creators, designed to help them create VR content that approaches cinematic fidelity, and help them maximize that content's viewership.
"In creating Radeon Pro, we sought to address the industry's biggest problems, and for many creators, there's none bigger than cinematic VR content," said Roy Taylor, corporate VP and head of alliances, content and VR, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD, in an opening keynote at VR on the Lot, a two-day summit bringing together players in media, entertainment and technology. "Bringing your creative vision to life can be a demanding and laborious process and working in VR, those demands are exponentially multiplied. Through extraordinary Radeon Pro hardware and software, we're helping alleviate the technical burdens of creativity, empowering artists to focus on telling their story, and through our efforts in location-based entertainment, giving them new opportunities to share their work with the world."
AMD offers content creators the new Radeon Pro WX 7100 GPU, capable of handling demanding media and entertainment workflows and professional VR content creation needs at a planned MSRP under $1,000 USD. The Radeon Pro WX 7100 uses the Polaris architecture to deliver performance while boasting workstation-grade components, with planned availability later this year.
Software tools complement the Radeon Pro WX 7100, include Radeon ProRender, an open-source physically-based rendering engine available on GPUOpen.com, designed to deliver photorealistic rendered content.
For filmed content, AMD's Project Loom is designed to enable real-time 360-degree video stitching that combines the output of up to 24 cameras to enable 4K resolution at 30 frames per second in VR. Project Loom is targeted for availability later this year as open source on GPUOpen.com.
To help in handling large datasets such as 360-degree video footage in 4K, AMD introduced the Radeon Pro Solid State Graphics (SSG) card. Initially available as a developer kit, Radeon Pro SSG gives content creators a full terabyte of memory directly attached to the GPU to drive performance gains. For instance, the Radeon Pro SSG handles 8K raw video with ease, enabling real-time video scrubbing at 90+ frames per second, up from 17 frames per second using conventional graphics memory.
AMD today also announced collaborations with Awesome Rocketship, Howie's Game Shack and VRrOOm. The agreements will leverage AMD's hardware and software to drive new and VR installations in malls, cinemas, i-cafés and other retail locations, providing new revenue opportunities for venues, expanded distribution opportunities for content creators, and new entertainment experiences to consumers.
AMD is working with Awesome Rocketship, a provider of out-of-home solutions for monetizing VR content across a variety of locations including theater lobbies, trade shows, shopping malls, and museums. At VR on the Lot, AMD and Awesome Rocketship are showcasing the company's Venue VR Gateway pod, featuring content in Phoenix One, a narrative science fiction adventure in VR.
Howie's Game Shack, operator of one of the largest game centers in North America, has announced they will open three VR-oriented i-cafés in Southern California, the first of their kind in North America. These cafés will feature several dozen VR PCs paired with HTC Vive headsets, powered by Radeon graphics.
AMD also announced a collaboration today with VRrOOm to help advance cinematic storytelling through VR in cinemas across China. VRrOOm has developed an end-to-end model for VR entertainment including the VRrOOm Sanctum theater experience, a digital news and content distribution platform extension (www.VRrOOm.buzz) and VR content production. VRrOOm plans to use AMD hardware in VRrOOm Sanctum theatres in cinemas located in six Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai, and two French cities including Paris starting this fall through VRrOOm's exclusive partnership with China Film Group's affiliated company CFEC and French cinema chain CineMovida. VRrOOm anticipates dozens of VRrOOm Sanctum installations across China and Europe by the end of 2017 and is currently discussing further deployment throughout the United States as well.
In addition, AMD recently opened an office on Sunset Boulevard to more easily support productions and partnerships around media and entertainment.