Azure Remote Rendering is a game-changer for interactive 3D experiences. It allows developers to render high-quality 3D content in real-time, without the need for expensive hardware.
By leveraging Azure's cloud infrastructure, developers can offload computationally intensive tasks, such as rendering, to the cloud, freeing up local resources for other tasks. This enables the creation of immersive, interactive 3D experiences that were previously impossible to achieve.
Azure Remote Rendering supports a wide range of formats, including glTF, OBJ, and FBX, making it easy to integrate with existing workflows. This flexibility is a major advantage over other rendering solutions, which may only support specific file formats.
With Azure Remote Rendering, developers can focus on creating engaging experiences, rather than worrying about the underlying technology.
What Is Azure Remote Rendering?
Azure Remote Rendering (ARR) is a service that enables you to render high-quality, interactive 3D content in the cloud and stream it in real-time to devices, such as the HoloLens 2.
It solves the problem of rendering complex 3D models by moving the workload to high-end GPUs in the cloud, where a cloud-hosted graphics engine renders the image and streams it to the target device.
ARR has two configurations: standard and premium, with the former allowing you to render up to 20 million polygons, and the latter having no upper limit.
Azure Remote Rendering supports multiple 3D formats and can handle individual textures of up to 16k, which is 64 times the texture resolution of a modern video game per square meter.
How It Works
Azure Remote Rendering (ARR) works by uploading your 3D models to Azure Blob Storage in formats like FBX or GLTF. This allows you to convert the models into ARR Runtime format using an API, making rendering as efficient as possible at runtime.
The rendering process involves calling an API to start a rendering server, which is then available to load and render the models. The server sends rendered frames back into the application running on the device, where they're composited with any local holograms.
Azure ARR is optimized for vast numbers of objects, making it ideal for complex scenes. You can reuse sessions to reduce startup delays, keeping a small pool of sessions running and connecting to an available session when you launch an application.
A client API running on the target device uses a scene graph to predict where the user viewpoint is going to be and sends that data to the cloud service. The service uses this data to manage the remote rendering service, farming the rendering process across Azure-hosted GPUs.
High-Level Architecture
Azure Remote Rendering (ARR) is a powerful technology that allows you to render complex 3D scenes in the cloud, making it possible to create immersive experiences on devices like the HoloLens.
ARR takes the concept of Holographic Remoting to the next level by using powerful Azure GPU Virtual Machines to render scenes, eliminating the need for a powerful PC in your local network.
The architecture of ARR is relatively simple, with a cloud-hosted render that takes data from a design workstation and sends it to the cloud service, which then farms the rendering process across Azure-hosted GPUs.
To get started with ARR, you need to upload your models to Azure Blob Storage in FBX or GLTF format, and then convert them to ARR Runtime format using an API.
The conversion process involves writing the converted model back into your Azure Blob Storage, so you'll have both the original and the converted model stored in your storage.
When the user is ready to render, the app calls another API to start a rendering server, which is now available to load and render the models.
The rendering server sends rendered frames back into the application running on the device, where they are composited with any local holograms that you might have in your scene.
Here's a high-level overview of the ARR workflow:
- Upload models to Azure Blob Storage
- Convert models to ARR Runtime format using an API
- Start a rendering server using an API
- Render frames in the cloud and stream them back to the device
- Composite rendered frames with local holograms
By using ARR, you can create complex 3D scenes and render them in the cloud, making it possible to create immersive experiences on devices like the HoloLens.
Experience Your 3D Content in Full Detail
Azure Remote Rendering brings your highest quality 3D content to mixed reality devices, such as HoloLens 2, by rendering complex models in the cloud and streaming them in real-time.
You can view and interact with your 3D models without decimation, which means you don't have to compromise on quality. This is a game-changer for industries that rely on high-quality 3D models for design and collaboration.
The process works by uploading your models to Azure Blob Storage, converting them into ARR Runtime format, and then rendering them in the cloud using powerful Azure GPU Virtual Machines. This allows you to stream high-quality 3D models to your devices without the need for local rendering.
With Azure Remote Rendering, you can experience your 3D content in full detail, without the need for simplification or decimation. This means you can make key business and design decisions with confidence, knowing that you're working with the most accurate and detailed models possible.
Here are some benefits of using Azure Remote Rendering for your 3D content:
- High-quality 3D models without decimation
- Real-time streaming of complex models
- No need for local rendering or simplification
- Accurate and detailed models for key business and design decisions
Benefits and Use Cases
Azure Remote Rendering allows for real-time rendering of complex 3D scenes, making it ideal for applications such as architectural visualization, product design, and video games.
With Azure Remote Rendering, you can render high-quality images and videos on the cloud, reducing the need for expensive hardware and increasing collaboration among teams.
Azure Remote Rendering supports a wide range of file formats, including OBJ, FBX, and glTF, making it easy to integrate with existing workflows.
This makes it a great option for companies looking to reduce costs and improve productivity.
What Makes It a Milestone?
Azure Remote Rendering is a game-changer for businesses that rely on complex 3D models.
It allows users to view these models on mobile devices like the HoloLens 2, which is a huge milestone.
CAD programs generate large 3D meshes with millions of polygons, and Azure Remote Rendering can handle these complex models without a low-resolution down sampling.
This means that businesses can use their CAD designs or 3D scan Digital Twins as is, without labor-intensive reduction steps.
Mobile Spatial Computing devices like the HoloLens can't render these complex models as they are, requiring a powerful PC desktop graphics card.
Azure Remote Rendering fills this gap by leveraging cloud rendering with real-time streaming, allowing for photo-realistic visualization of complex models with hundreds of millions of polygons.
Build Interactive 3D Experiences
Azure Remote Rendering enables on-demand rendering of complex 3D models, allowing for instant visualization of entire construction sites or offshore platforms with the touch of a button.
Imagine a construction entrepreneur who wants to visualize the whole construction site or an offshore engineer who desires the whole offshore platform visualized in real time.
The level of detail in the cloud doesn't impact the performance of the HoloLens app interacting with the model, saving time on 3D model optimization.
Azure Remote Rendering brings your highest quality 3D content and interactive experiences to mixed reality devices, such as HoloLens 2, using the computing power of Azure to render even the most complex models in the cloud.
With Azure Remote Rendering, you can view and interact with your 3D models without decimation, bringing incredibly detailed 3D models to the devices you use to work and collaborate without compromising quality.
You can rent powerful hardware in the Microsoft cloud and get a fully realized and interactive 3D model streamed to the HoloLens, the stream is interactive, so the user can walk around or interact with it.
Sources
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/remote-rendering
- https://valoremreply.com/resources/insights/blog/2020/april/azure-remote-rendering-with-hololens-2/
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/azure-remote-rendering-high-quality-holograms-ivana-tilca
- https://en.bouvet.no/about-bouvet/view-complex-3d-models-with-azure-remote-rendering
- https://valoremreply.com/resources/insights/blog/2020/july/azure-remote-rendering-summer-updates/
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