Next Limit expands its market with Qt-driven Cross-Platform Development
When film production companies and visual effects
studios including Pixar, Disney and WETA Digital need industry-leading
simulation solutions, they turn to Next Limit Technologies’ RealFlow, the
high-end 3D and visual effects application. Another solution from Next Limit,
Maxwell Render, provides simulation technologies for the CAD and Computer
Graphics market with a focus on architecture, product design and engineering
customers. With clients in such demanding and exacting fields, the company
needed to develop a User Interface that would deliver the highest level of
customer satisfaction. For that, Next Limit chose Qt.
The Challenge
Next Limit realized that many of its potential customers were running on
Linux and at the time RealFlow was only available for Windows. The
company quickly recognized that they were leaving certain markets untouched and
knew that they didn’t want a tool that would just take their Win32 SDK GUI code
and make a translation to Linux. Next Limit required a common source code,
which would also allow them to completely re-write the GUI using an object-oriented
library.
The Solution
Next Limit chose Qt because of its ability to deal with multiple platforms
using the same source code. After extensive research, Next Limit came to the
conclusion that Qt was the best solution based on its quick, easy-to-use and
easy-to-create user interfaces and network applications as well as its
wide-ranging object-oriented library of widgets for Linux, Windows and Mac OS
X. This proved to be extremely important to Next Limit because of its large
commitment to delivering improved simulation techniques, advanced mathematical
models and programming methodologies for all three platforms.
To test Qt, Next Limit designed an
easy application that would cover the most sensitive issues of RealFlow,
including the ability to handle OpenGL in a fluent way and the ability to use
computation threads that work while the user is manipulating the GUI. The test
was a resounding success enabling Next Limit developers to port RealFlow to Qt
in only two months.
“It was really easy,” said Angel Tena, technical director for Next
Limit’s RealFlow product. “The Qt classes were well-designed and easy to use.
We often didn’t even have to use the documentation. We just figured out what
the name of the function was and a great number of functions would be there.”
The company’s success with Qt and RealFlow was duplicated when it later
developed Maxwell Render, a rendering solution capable of simulating light
exactly as it behaves in the real world. Like RealFlow, Maxwell Render is
available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X partly thanks to Qt’s
cross-development capabilities.
The Value
Next Limit has realized a number of benefits from the use of Qt. Their
solutions were made available to a broader market thanks to the addition of the
Linux and Mac OS X platforms, winning them a large number of new customers.
Additionally, Qt enabled the company to reduce development time and development
costs while creating products that deliver enhanced customer satisfaction.
Customers are not the only ones Next Limit Technologies has impressed.
Its Qt-developed RealFlow solution was recently awarded a 2007 Technical
Achievement Award from the Academy
of Motion Pictures Arts
and Sciences.
“The usability and look and feel of our software have been dramatically
improved since we started using Qt. It has greatly benefited our customers.”
Angel Tena, technical director for Next Limit’s RealFlow product.
Learn more about Next Limit Technologies by visiting: www.nextlimit.com.
