WYSIWYG R31 Gets Full Release

CAST Software has released the full, market-ready version of WYSIWYG R31, the brand new and significantly updated edition of its lighting design and pre-visualization suite. R31 is available for download now from the Members Only Area of the CAST Soft website.

Bruce Freeman, chairman of CAST Group commented: "CAST is delighted to release the full version of what is the most ground-breaking new edition of WYSIWYG in a number of years. We're very proud of the exceptional new features in R31, of which there are many. We paid close attention to suggestions and requests received from our members and, in response, the WYSIWYG development team has given them exactly what they want -- tools that will help them thrive in today's fiercely competitive production design market by making them more professional, more productive, and more profitable. This is CAST's mantra; in line with our steadfast determination to consistently and dramatically improve the workflow and user experience of WYSIWYG."

The following is a comprehensive list of the new features to be found in R31 and their benefits to the WYSIWYG professional:
• New Material System in Shaded Views will allow material properties to be applied on a per-element level to any object in the file, adding more realism to real-time visualizations, meaning more screenshots and fewer renderings, therefore saving hours of time. Brand new material properties include: Specular Level, Specular Gloss, Specular Color Source and Light Reflection, delivering "really virtually real" images to enhance the creative process.
• Enhanced beam visualization, offering a greater dynamic range for your beams and delivering more accuracy in relative intensities between different fixtures, for those who have an eye for detail. Beams will no longer saturate to white when overlapping in large numbers.
• Texturing Enhancements, including the ability to color tint and brighten textures, images and videos, allowing users to put final touches on textured objects without the need to switch back and forth between WYSIWYG and additional image editing software, making them more productive.
• New Design Mode Fanning Tools: Intensity Fanning, Iris Fanning, Zoom Fanning and Color Fanning, all of which greatly speed up the creation of stunning new looks in Design mode and are especially useful for users working under pressure.
• Support for AutoCAD 2013 enables files saved in this software to be directly imported into WYSIWYG.
• New CAD tools including Intersection Snap and Trim & Extend functionality for lines, which cuts down on drawing time and reduces the need to switch back and forth between WYSIWYG and third party CAD software.
• New Dimension styles including new arrow styles and the ability to define customized default dimension object properties. These defaults can then be set in User Options and called up whenever needed, saving lots of time.
• Enhancements to Focus Objects including new Focus Arcs and Focus Lines, providing a fast way of creating looks and fanning the user's lights.
• New Import Floorplan Wizard that supports larger image sizes, image rotation and selection of insertion points, making it easier and faster to work in WYSIWYG by delivering new functionality and offering more flexibility when using imported floorplans.
• New insert options in the Library Browser include Inserting Truss Vertically and Inserting Fixtures on Floor, both wrist and time-savers that reduce the number of mouse clicks needed to insert truss and fixtures directly on the floor.
• Addition of many new keyboard shortcuts for common operations, putting more features right at the user's finger tips to work even faster.
• Expanded library with New Fixtures, New Truss, and New Objects, allowing the user to use the very latest equipment in theirr designs and see exactly what is going to achieve with it -- what you see is what you get.

Lighting visualizations expert, Miguel Ribeiro, said of WYSIWYG R31: "It's absolutely fantastic. Once again I have been using the beta version to work on something really big and secret, and I wish I could tell you about it, but what I will say is that the inclusion of Trim, Extend and Intersect Snaps have made this work in WYSIWYG much (and I mean much) faster. Previously for some critical operations I had to swap between WYSIWYG and AutoCAD whereas now, it's all done in WYSIWYG. Also, enhanced WYG support for AutoCAD 2013 made importing some really complex solids a much better experience."

"Furthermore, the addition of a more visual menu, as well as more functions, make the right click even 'bigger'," he continued. "Two things I really like about the new Shaded View are the specular highlights and the ability to tint the ambient light. Visualizations don't only look much better now, but they can also have the glow that you would find in a concert venue or rehearsal space. And the inclusion of Fanning options throughout various features makes it possible to plot a lot more complex lighting states within WYSIWYG without the usage of a dedicated lighting desk."

To demonstrate the power of R31's Material System and its ability to display specular highlights such as glossiness in real time, accomplished WYSIWYG user Julien Ferreiro has reproduced a video in R31 which was originally created on a previous release of WYSIWYG. The video can be seen here: http://youtu.be/cFiwyxqTid0. Ferreiro commented: "The great thing about R31 is that the image quality of the dynamic Shaded View is now as good as static renders or even photographs. This means you can present an entire concept with constantly evolving lights and effects, not just static images. Thanks to the ever-increasing power of computers and graphic cards, a new way of using this software has emerged. It is now possible, for example, to make a beam or a gobo fuzzy and use the same material options, regardless of which wysiwyg mode you are in. The results are even closer to reality, so we are moving away from a traditional CAD software render from something like AutoCAD or Vector, to a much more realistic simulation that can easily fool the general public into thinking they are looking at real images -- this is from my own experience."

The wysiwyg R31 update is available now from the Members Only Area of the CAST website: www.cast-soft.com. New releases are free for members.

See CAST Software at PLASA Focus: Austin, September 10-11, and PLASA Focus: Nashville, February 18-19.