Nalu (demo)
Encyclopedia
Nalu is both the name of NVIDIA
's technology demo
and its main character. The demo was used to promote the GeForce 6800 GPU
s of the GeForce 6 Series
video card.
. Nalu means "wave" in Hawaiian
; the name is fitting because of her long, flowing hair which shimmers and undulates in her underwater home, showing off the power of the GeForce 6800 GPUs. NVIDIA
's engineer William Donnelly, engineer Hubert Nguyen, artist/modeler Bonnie O’Clair and animator Anders Beer were credited with crafting this 3D real-time demo that would surpass the previously created Dawn
and Dusk demos, which were made to showcase the company's GeForce FX
series.
Nalu's most striking feature is her dense hair, in contrast with the earlier demos' use of short hair. The hair is simulated in real time and lit by a technique called Deep Shadows where the topmost hairs glow brightly from exposure to the light, while the lower hairs are darker.
The effects of gravity and water current on Nalu and her surroundings, the color of the light coming through the water, the iridescence of her scales, the light refracted through the water's surface lights up her skin, and the dynamic visual effect of her body and hair casting soft shadows on her as she swims are all rendered in real-time. All these features demonstrated the raw power and special effects capabilities of the GeForce 6800 GPU
s.
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
's technology demo
Technology demo
A tech demo is a prototype, rough example or an otherwise incomplete version of a product, put together with the primary purpose of showcasing the idea, performance, method or the features of the product...
and its main character. The demo was used to promote the GeForce 6800 GPU
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
s of the GeForce 6 Series
GeForce 6 Series
The GeForce 6 Series is Nvidia's sixth generation of GeForce graphic processing units. Launched on April 14, 2004, the GeForce 6 family introduced PureVideo post-processing for video, SLI technology, and Shader Model 3.0 support .-GeForce 6 Series features:-SLI:The Scalable Link...
video card.
Overview
Nalu is the daughter of the deep sea, a mermaidMermaid
A mermaid is a mythological aquatic creature with a female human head, arms, and torso and the tail of a fish. A male version of a mermaid is known as a "merman" and in general both males and females are known as "merfolk"...
. Nalu means "wave" in Hawaiian
Hawaiian language
The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
; the name is fitting because of her long, flowing hair which shimmers and undulates in her underwater home, showing off the power of the GeForce 6800 GPUs. NVIDIA
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
's engineer William Donnelly, engineer Hubert Nguyen, artist/modeler Bonnie O’Clair and animator Anders Beer were credited with crafting this 3D real-time demo that would surpass the previously created Dawn
Dawn (demo)
Dawn is both the name of Nvidia's technology demo and its main character constructed for performance by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. The eponymous demo is called "the dawn of cinematic computing", and was used to showcase the capabilities of the GeForce FX series of video cards.-Overview:Dawn is a...
and Dusk demos, which were made to showcase the company's GeForce FX
GeForce FX
The GeForce FX or "GeForce 5" series is a line of graphics processing units from the manufacturer NVIDIA.-Overview:...
series.
Nalu's most striking feature is her dense hair, in contrast with the earlier demos' use of short hair. The hair is simulated in real time and lit by a technique called Deep Shadows where the topmost hairs glow brightly from exposure to the light, while the lower hairs are darker.
The effects of gravity and water current on Nalu and her surroundings, the color of the light coming through the water, the iridescence of her scales, the light refracted through the water's surface lights up her skin, and the dynamic visual effect of her body and hair casting soft shadows on her as she swims are all rendered in real-time. All these features demonstrated the raw power and special effects capabilities of the GeForce 6800 GPU
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
s.