Product FAQ

Question: What are micropolygons?

Micropolygons are tiny quads or triangles about the size of a pixel. Current rendering engines typically tessellate smooth surfaces into micropolyons, often requiring large amounts of memory which can result in crashes. Micropolygons are also the cause of many creasing and cracking problems, particularly in scenes with displacements.

Question: What is point-sampling?

Point-sampling is the method of shooting rays through a pixel to determine which objects in the scene are visible. A problem with point-sampling is that it is speculative, so there are always cases where it will miss objects that should be found. When this happens, image quality suffers. Characteristically, artifacts such as “chunky edges” and “popping” are common problems associated with point-sampling, particularly in animations.

Question: So your software does not do ray tracing?

Correct. We have a completely new method that does not rely on traditional approaches.

Question: Then how do you compute global illumination effects like ambient occlusion and ray-traced reflections?

Support for these types of features is not currently a part of our beta program. These advanced features are, however, in the works.

Question: Without global illumination, what can I use your software for?

Our focus at present is providing the user with a simple and elegant solution to problems typically associated with the rendering of large scenes and high quality images. So, for the user who has had and continues to have such difficulties, Meridian is the answer.

Question: Can I “bake” global illumination into textures and then render with your software?

Yes.

Question: Do you support Linux or Mac?

No. Support for these platforms will be provided as the market dictates.

No
Micropolgons

No
Point Sampling