Watch Out Adobe... Affinity is Free!

In case you haven't heard, a major competitor to Adobe, which several AEC firms I know of have previously switched to at a fraction of the cost, is now totally free. And not only that, they announced this with a brand new version that appears to be amazing.

Affinity is totally free.

Also, on a slight tangent, I share some of the tools many of us use that now take advantage of your GPU (including Affinity).

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NVIDIA GTC 2025 - My Session with QuarkXR and T-Mobile

I’m thrilled to share that I’ll be speaking for the third time at NVIDIA GTC next month in Silicon Valley! GTC is always an incredible convergence of forward-thinking professionals from industries like AI/ML, autonomous driving, healthcare, and visualization, so I’m excited to be part of it once again.

I'll be sharing insights on Lake|Flato's collaboration with T-Mobile and QuarkXR. Our focus: optimizing VR streaming with Enscape's real-time rendering engine, Autodesk Revit, and NVIDIA GPUs + CloudXR tech.

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NVIDIA VCR tool used by the Enscape Development team

NVIDIA recently published a blog post featuring NVIDIA VR Capture and Replay (VCR) and how the Enscape development team uses it to streamline VR regression testing. The article features Lake|Flato's San Antonio, Texas, office remodel project.

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NVIDIA Customer Story on Lake|Flato's use of Innoactive for Streaming VR

NVIDIA just published a case study highlighting Lake|Flato's use of Innoative, a service that facilitates streaming an Enscape VR experience across the internet to a wireless Meta Quest 2 headset.

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NVIDIA GTC '22 - Removing Barriers to VR in Architecture using Streaming VR

I will be presenting at NVIDIA GTC '22 next month, along with Petr Mitev VP, Visualization Product Unit at Enscape. Today's post highlights the session and current Lake|Flato project used as the case study.

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NVIDIA CloudXR for AEC

There is magic in the air... wireless real-time VR delivered via Wi-Fi or even 5G streamed across the internet!

Which is all made possible by the cutting edge NVIDIA CloudXR tech, along with NVIDIA DLSS-enabled Enscape for real-time rendering. This presents an exciting opportunity for AEC, and Lake|Flato in particular given our tech topology.

This is the topic of today's post, which includes a YouTube video.

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NVIDIA blog post about Lake|Flato NVIDIA A40 PoC + DLSS Webinar Tomorrow

NVIDIA just published a blog post featuring a proof of concept (PoC) project Lake|Flato participated in, to properly size a VDI environment to optimize power consumption, yet still fully support our large complex projects in Enscape.

On a related note, I will be participating in a webinar tomorrow to talk about Enscape's implementation of NVIDIA DLSS.

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Dell, NVIDIA, SIGGRAPH - Fireside Chat on Omniverse

As SIGGRAPH 2021 rolls to an end today, I thought I would share info on a fireside chat I did with Dell and NVIDIA about Omniverse...

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NVIDIA DLSS and Enscape - Upcoming Webinar (with me)

I will be participating in a webinar, hosted by Enscape, called NVIDIA DLSS and Enscape: Introducing the Latest Technology in Real-Time Visualization. This webinar will also feature Enscape's lead rendering developer and NVIDIA's AEC marketing strategist!

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My New Enscape Blog Post on NVIDIA DLSS Support!

Exciting news... Enscape is just about to release version 3.1 which will include support for NVIDIA Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS). I worked with Enscape to write a post, for their blog, about what this means and detail some of the user benefits.

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NVIDIA Quadro View

NVIDIA just released a new desktop management tool called Quadro View. Several months ago I was given the opportunity to beta test it. It is a great tool for people with several displays and who use many applications at once. It is even better for those who have ultra-wide monitors as you can carve out areas within that large display to essentially act as separate displays, where the app will snap into place.

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Keep Your Graphics Driver Current with NVIDIA Quadro Experience

Today's post shares a free tool from NVIDIA you can use to make sure your graphics driver is up-to-date when using a Quadro-based GPU. The tool is the workstation-based NVIDIA Quadro Experience, which is similar to the consumer/gaming-based NVIDIA GeForce Experience.

What is NVIDIA Quadro Experience, in their own words:

NVIDIA Quadro Experience is the companion application to your Quadro® graphics card that enhances professional workflows. It facilitates collaboration with versatile screen recording and streaming capabilities and simplifies your workflow with quick access to your favorite GPU-accelerated  applications. It also provides automatic alerts for new driver releases, so you can access the latest software features at your convenience. When you’re not working, Quadro Experience also provides access to gaming features.

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NVIDIA GTC 2020 Keynote Highlight

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang delivered his GTC keynote remotely from his home kitchen in California during the COVID-19 pandemic! They continue to amaze me with the new tech they develop every year. They have a section on RTX Graphics and show an amazing real-time rendered game with physics that I want!

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NVIDIA Accelerates Windows Remote Desktop

My friends at NVIDIA shared some interesting information with me this week that has the potential of improving your Remote Desktop (RDP) experience... which is critical in our current #WorkFromHome situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of us have now transitioned from "implementation" to "optimization" mode for remote staff support. Today's post will share this potentially invaluable information, including how it relates to GeForce versus Quardo graphics card!

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NVIDIA GTC 2020 Changed to Online Event Due to Coronavirus Situation

Breaking news from NVIDIA this week... they are converting their flagship GPU technology conference in Silicon Valley to an online event this year due to the corona virus situation. All attendees will receive a full refund and, now, anyone can register for free and watch online.

On a similar note, BILT-ASIA 2020 in Singapore was postponed; click here for more info.

Here is what their website says (read more here)...

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Wireless HTC Vive Cosmos - A Win for AEC

The world of VR continues to evolve, which includes higher quality graphics, more portability and wireless freedome... as I generally predicted earlier this year in my Enscape blog post Technology Trends That Will Shape The AEC Industry in 2019.

In today's post I will share a few details about the new HTC Vive Cosmos and some highlights from the Wireless Adapter setup. The high-quality graphics, wireless freedom and inside-out tracking make it a great option for real-time rendered VR experiences in AEC.

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New Enscape Release Today Supports NVIDIA RTX

A quick note to point out the new Enscape build published today now officially supports NVIDIA's RTX technology!

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NVIDIA Driver Download Options Explained

When downloading the latest NVIDIA graphics driver you are prompted to select a Download Type. I reached out to my friends at NVIDIA to learn more about what the two options really mean... today's post helps to answer this question.

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Updating Your Graphics Driver - A How To Post For Students

With fall semester starting I want to share some tips which will hopefully help architecture and engineering students get off to a smooth start. However, I am sure there are many others who will benefit from this information as well.

Revit, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Fuzor and Enscape, to name a few, all use the graphics card in your computer to display what you see on the monitor. I find that ensuring the driver is up-to-date for your graphics card makes for a more stable and robust experience while using these sophisticated tools. Here are the basics on making sure you have the latest and greatest driver installed.

Note that GPU, Graphics Processing Unit and Graphics Card mean the same thing and are used interchangeably.

Verify Your Graphics Card

There are a few ways to verify which graphics card your computer has. If you have an NVIDIA card, simply right-click on the desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel.

The graphics card is listed right away. In this example, it is an...

Exciting News for AEC from NVIDIA at SIGGRAPH 2018 - Quadro RTX Series

At SIGGRAPH 2018, NVIDIA's fearless leader and entertaining guy, Jensen Huang, announces a new and improved line of Quadro graphics cards; Quadro RTX 8000, Quadro RTX 6000 and Quadro RTX 5000 due to ship later this year!

These cards bring to market, the new VirtualLink, single USB-C connector, to simplify and improve Virtual Reality (VR) and Samsung DDR6 memory. The new line also boasts direct support for real-time ray-tracing via new RT Cores and accelerated AI via new Turing Tensor Cores.

"First implementation of ultra-fast Samsung 16Gb GDDR6 memory to support more complex designs, massive architectural datasets, 8K movie content and more."

Image courtesy of NVIDIA

Our friends at Autodesk are working with NVIDIA to leverage this new technology. I am guessing...