Pushing the limits of realistic 3D rendering: exploring Pacdora rendering technology

1.1 Why was Pacdora developed? What problems does it solve?

Before Pacdora came along, the design and 3D rendering industries faced 3 big challenges:

1. Differences in rendering quality: There was often a huge gap between what you saw in previews and the final images, making it hard to get a realistic picture.
2. Long rendering times: Creating renderings could take hours or even longer, which really slowed down work.
3. Complex operations with high learning costs: The settings were too complicated, making it hard for beginners and non-professionals to get started quickly.

1.2 Our main goals

Pacdora aims to achieve high efficiency, realism, and flexibility. We want to ensure that while maintaining top-notch 3D rendering quality, we also cut down on rendering times and make it easier for users to learn and use our technology. This way, everyone can easily complete their design tasks.

1.3 How Pacdora differs from traditional rendering engines

1. Focus on product design: Pacdora is tailored for product design areas like clothing, books, electronics, and packaging.
2. Lightweight and user-friendly: We've made breakthroughs in making our software lightweight and easy to use so users can jump right into designing without getting bogged down by complex setups.
3. Real-time previews: Our real-time preview feature significantly reduces the gap between preview images and final outputs, allowing users to see the end results as they work.
4. Fast outputs: Pacdora drastically shortens rendering times, boosting user efficiency in design.

2.1 Core algorithms

Before Pacdora came along, the design and 3D rendering industries faced 3 big challenges:

1. Optimized ray tracing

• Pacdora uses a two-level acceleration structure for the quick generation and updates of these structures. This optimization not only speeds up rendering but also provides faster feedback during complex scene renderings.

• We also use GGX for sampling BRDF (Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function), enhancing realism while ensuring physical accuracy.

• Improvements in sampling distributions for rectangular and spherical lights add more realism in lighting.

2. Global Illumination: simulating realistic light propagation

We strictly calculate light reflection using BRDF distribution with a maximum of 5 reflections and 8 refractions per ray.This careful simulation makes the final render look more natural.

3. Dynamic material and texture handling

Pacdora can showcase rich material details while being easy to use.

Users can easily adjust parameters like diffuse reflection, transmission, fog, clearcoat, emission, opacity, metalness, roughness, IOR (Index of Refraction), normal maps, etc., to create complex materials.

2.2 Performance optimization

1. GPU acceleration and memory management

• Pacdora uses multi-core ray-tracing GPUs that can track billions of rays per second. This powerful performance allows users to efficiently handle large scenes, significantly reducing rendering times.
• Pacdora employs hashing for images and geometry data to save memory and VRAM. This optimization not only lowers hardware costs but also boosts system efficiency, enabling smooth software use even on lower-end configurations.

2. Support for parallel computing across multiple services

Pacdora utilizes multiple servers for task distribution, including dieline servers, material calculation servers, and rendering servers. This categorization allows for parallel computing tailored to different complexities, greatly speeding up the export time for rendered images

2.3 Flexibility and expandability

1. Multiple application scenarios

Pacdora fits various applications like apparel, product, and packaging design—offering users a broad range of creative possibilities.

2. Modular design for easy integration

Pacdora is mainly divided into three modules: geometry animation, materials, and post-processing. These modules directly impact the rendering pipeline. The materials module not only includes basic materials but also offers expandable shader-based materials, allowing users to create custom and flexible effects

3.1 Pacdora vs. Blender

Blender is powerful but has a steep learning curve that can confuse new users at first. In contrast, Pacdora offers a friendlier user experience that allows you to complete designs easily while maintaining high quality and efficiency in output.

3.2 Pacdora vs. V-Ray

V-Ray is a powerful tool, but its complex settings and steep learning curve can be challenging for beginners, especially since it often requires additional software plugins. This makes it difficult for new users to get started. Moreover, V-Ray's preview feature frequently fails to deliver results that closely resemble the final 3D render. 

In contrast, Pacdora simplifies the interface and offers previews that are much closer to the final output, allowing users to design quickly while achieving high-quality results. This reduces both the learning curve and the time spent on revisions, significantly boosting overall efficiency.

3.3 Pacdora vs. Arnold 

Arnold focuses on cinematic-level realism but primarily relies on CPU rendering. This can lead to performance bottlenecks when handling large scenes, resulting in slower rendering speeds and longer times. 

In contrast, Pacdora significantly boosts rendering speed through GPU acceleration.

3.4 Pacdora vs. Redshift and Octane

Both Redshift and Octane are GPU-optimized engines that deliver high-quality renders quickly. However, they may require complex settings in some cases, which can time-consuming for users when adjusting parameters. 

Pacdora, on the other hand, ensures high rendering quality while providing faster speeds and easier operation.

4.1 Industry applications

1. Product design

Pacdora offers significant advantages in product design, especially in categories like apparel, electronics, books, and more. With Pacdora's real-time rendering feature, users can quickly generate high-quality visuals to clearly see product appearance and details. This instant feedback speeds up the design iteration process and reduces modification costs due to design flaws.

2. Packaging design

In packaging design, Pacdora also shows unique advantages. Pacdora's high-quality renders can simulate various materials (such as paper, plastic, and metal) and textures (like smooth, rough, and transparent), enhancing the visual appeal and tactile experience of packaging.

5.1 Independent development journey

1. From concept to reality

From May to November 2022, we focused on developing a real-time rendering preview feature while integrating it with the V-Ray renderer for offline image generation. This initial work established a basic consistency between online real-time previews and offline outputs, laying the groundwork for future technological iterations.

2. Breakthrough in offline rendering

From July to December 2023, we developed an offline renderer that integrated the preview and offline image generation processes. We also enhanced the consistency between offline rendering and real-time previews, ensuring that users achieve highly similar visual results during both the preview phase and final output.

5.2 Summary of innovations

1. High consistency between previews and offline outputs: Pacdora achieves top-level similarity between real-time previews and final outputs. By optimizing rendering technology and processes, it ensures smooth previews while maintaining realistic results.
2. Compatibility with various renderer material systems: Popular renderers have different material systems; V-Ray and Blender use the Metalness Workflow, while Octane uses the Specular Workflow. When unifying or transferring materials, users often need to adjust parameters manually. Pacdora supports all these material systems internally, simplifying the process.
3. Research and development focused on packaging design: Pacdora has optimized its rendering technology for packaging design, supporting techniques like foil stamping, UV treatments, and embossing. These features enable accurate simulation of real packaging effects, enhancing visual appeal and market competitiveness.

6.1 Technology iteration plan

Pacdora’s future development will focus on improving resolution and adding more powerful AI features.

As demand for high-quality renders grows, we’ll enhance resolution to meet users’ expectations for detail and realism in product and packaging design.

Pacdora also plans to integrate AI for design suggestions and automated optimizations, making it easier for users to find inspiration and achieve high-quality results.

6.2 Potential applications in real-time interaction

Pacdora’s capabilities can extend to architectural design, film production, and game development. It can provide realistic building designs, quick adjustments for special effects in films, and immersive rendering for gaming.

6.3 Applications across more industry scenarios

Pacdora’s capabilities can extend to architectural design, film production, and game development. It can provide realistic building designs, quick adjustments for special effects in films, and immersive rendering for gaming.

The emergence of Pacdora rendering technology marks a revolution in the design industry. It offers high usability and realistic rendering effects that differ from traditional technologies, with low dependency on hardware. Whether you are a beginner or a professional user, you can easily achieve high-quality creative designs without needing high-performance equipment. 

We invite more users and businesses to explore Pacdora’s limitless possibilities together.