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Art Imitates Life at 3D Visualization Center

June 4th, 2008

Highly-immersive visualization complexes have traditionally been confined to super computing centers and prestigious university sites for advanced research. But new uses are evolving including immersive collaboration and even support for Hollywood film production.

Matt Brennesholtz
Insight Media Analyst

Consider the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE) facility, which is one of the world’s premier visualization centers. It has state-of-the-art facilities, but is not dedicated to a narrow group of researchers. Instead, they offer a variety of services to a growing number of diverse users, changing the business model for such facilities.

LITE’s visualization facilities are impressive. They include:

A six-sided 3D immersive cube environment with motion tracking of the inhabitants of the 10-foot cube.
A 175 seat 3D immersive theater has a 37 foot screen and is fully immersive for the viewers wearing active glasses in the first 4 rows. The remainder of the seats, further from the screen, see a 2D image while wearing passive glasses.
A 25-30 seat compact lecture/presentation theatre with a three-projector screen system that supports a 3-D environment with a tracking system available. The image is redrawn relative to the user’s position when the user moves his/her head or wand.
An immersive collaboration teleconference room with has a 120-degree flat screen accommodating up to 20 - 25. The conference room’s visualization is provided by a two-projector rear projection system in 3D, of course.

In addition to its visualization facilities, LITE has a variety of high-performance computing systems (HPC) and high-speed fiber optic networks. HPC systems consist of clusters of high-performance computers working in parallel to deliver Teraflop performance. The center HPC systems include Altix 4700, Altix 350, Silicon Graphics Prism and SGI Infinite Storage 6700 elements, all tied together, to the visualization systems and to the outside world by the fiber networks.

These facilities and capabilities are serving customers in new ways on a worldwide basis.

Sound like science fiction to you? Active Entertainment agrees with you. Their Louisiana production company, Lafayette-based Bullet Films, just finished filming scenes from the science fiction film "Judgment Day" at various venues at LITE.

One scene involved transforming LITE’s 3-D immersive theater into a space command center. In addition, scenes were shot in the LITE lobby area, the videoconferencing room and the courtyard outside the building.

Officials for Active Entertainment, its post-production and CGI company, Sweetpost Productions, and LITE said they see the project as the beginning of a partnership that will see LITE become more involved in the production and design of special effects for other films.

"The film industry is one industry we thought from the very beginning was a natural fit with LITE’s visualization and supercomputing capabilities," LITE Executive Director Carolina Cruz-Neira commented. "What is happening here this week is a huge step forward for us."

The movie is scheduled for release in November. For those interested in science fiction, see the movie. For those interested in 2D or 3D visualization, see the Insight Media Visualization and Simulation report (http://www.insightmedia.info/reports/2007vissimdetails.php). Or better yet, do both.

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