LightWork Design has announced the release of the
latest version of LightWorks
(http://www.lightworkdesign.com/features/lightworks_7.9),
the company's rendering engine. The upgrade
focuses on introducing new ambient occlusion
functionality to the LightWorks product set, as
well as improving support for real-world
materials in both hardware and software rendering.

According to the folks at LightWork Design, key
developments within LightWorks 7.9 include:

° Ambient occlusion: this new feature in
LightWorks adds intelligent and predictable
ambient lighting to models for greater depth,
performance and realism. It's particularly useful
for the lighting of interior scenes.

° High Dynamic Range images (HDRI's): LightWorks
has created a variety of their own HDR images to
enable users to get even more realistic lighting
within their scenes. These are included within
this release of LightWorks 7.9. LightWorks will
be producing further HDR collections in upcoming
releases as part of their on-going development
work.

° Specular Final Gather: This feature has been
refined to optimize workflow so that the smoother
the surface, the less work is actually spent in
calculating the specular final gather results.

° Complex reflectance shaders: LightWorks has
created a range of new shaders for their latest
release, aimed at providing users with the
ability to create a wider range of even more
realistic effects. The new shaders include:
glossy, blurred and frosted glass, which allow
the creation of glossy plastics, brushed metals,
car paints, varnished surfaces and lacquered
finishes.

° CgFX: LightWorks now enables customers to
extend effects in real-time rendering, but using
external CgFX materials.

You'll have to contact LightWorks for pricing.