Milan-based Phoenix Tools announced the release of RealFur 2.0 – a major upgrade to their fur rendering technology. The new version introduces renders up to 10 times faster than the previous version. The key to this speed is that the old volumetric technology has been replaced with a new geometry-based system that allows artists to render millions of polygons without having to display them in the 3D authoring application. An optimized cylinder, with the given color, transparency and other global material parameters, replace each hair strand at the rendering stage. This technology lets animators quickly integrate hair and fur into their work without bogging down their 3D programs, yet retaining complete control over its look and behavior. RealFur 2.0 is available as a plug-in for SOFTIMAGE.