
Reflections have never looked so good.
Artists are using NVIDIA RTX GPUs to take real-time graphics to the next level, creating visuals with rendered surfaces and light reflections to produce incredible photorealistic details.
The Marbles RTX technology demo, first previewed at GTC in March, ran on a single NVIDIA RTX 8000 GPU. It showcased how complex physics can be simulated in a real-time, ray-traced world.
During the GeForce RTX 30 Series launch event in September, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a more challenging take on the NVIDIA Marbles RTX project: staging the scene to take place at night and illustrate the effect of hundreds of dynamic, animated lights.
Marbles at Night is a physics-based demo created with dynamic, ray-traced lights and over 100 million polygons. Built in NVIDIA Omniverse and running on a single GeForce RTX 3090 GPU, the final result showed hundreds of different light sources at night, with each marble reflecting lights differently and all happening in real time.
Beyond demonstrating the latest technologies for content creation, Marbles at Night showed how creative professionals can now seamlessly collaborate and design simulations with incredible lighting, accurate reflections and real-time ray tracing with path tracing.
Pushing the Limits of Creativity
A team of artists from NVIDIA collaborated and built the project in NVIDIA Omniverse, the real-time graphics and simulation platform based on NVIDIA RTX GPUs and Pixar's Universal Scene Description.
Working in Omniverse, the artists were able to upload, store and access all the assets in the cloud, allowing them to easily share files across teams. They could send a link, open the file and work on the assets at the same time.
Every single asset in Marbles at Night was hand-made, modeled and textured from scratch. Marbles RTX Creative Director Gavriil Klimov bought over 200 art supplies and took reference photos of each to capture realistic details, from paint splatter to wear and tear. Texturing - a process that allows artists to transfer details from one model to another - was done entirely in Substance Painter, with multiple variations for each asset.
In Omniverse, the artists manually crafted everything in the Marbles project using RTX Renderer and a variety of creative applications like 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, ZBrush and Blender. The simulation platform enabled the creative team to view all content at the highest possible quality in real time, resulting in shorter cycles and more iterations.
Nearly a dozen people were working on the project remotely from locations as far afield as California, New York, Australia and Russia. Although the team members were located around the world, Omniverse allowed them to work on scenes simultaneously thanks to Omniverse Nucleus. Running on premises or in the cloud, the module enabled the teams to collaborate in real time across vast distances.
The collaboration-based workflow, combined with the fact the project's assets were stored in the cloud, made it easier for everyone to access the files and edit in real time.
The final technology demo completed in Omniverse resulted in over 500GB worth of texture data, over 100 unique objects, more than 5,000 meshes and about 100 million polygons.
The Research Behind the Project
NVIDIA Research recently released a paper on the reservoir-based spatiotemporal importance resampling (ReSTIR) technique, which details how to render dynamic direct lighting and shadows from millions of area lights in real time. Inspired by this technique, the NVIDIA rendering team, led by distinguished engineer Ignacio Llamas, implemented an algorithm that allowed Klimov and team to place as many lights as they wanted for the Marbles demo, without being constrained by lighting limits.
Before, we were limited to using less than 10 lights. But today with Omniverse capabilities using RTX, we were able to place as many lights as we wanted, said Klimov. That's the beauty of it - you can creatively decide what the limit is that works for you.
Traditionally, artists and developers achieved complex lighting using baked solutions. NVIDIA Research, in collaboration with the Visual Computing Lab at Dartmouth College, produced the research paper that dives into how artists can enable direct lighting from millions of moving lights.
The approach requires no complex light structure, no baking and no global scene parameterization. All the lights can cast shadows, everything can move arbitrarily and new emitters can be added dynamically. This technique is implemented using DirectX Ray Tracing accelerated by NVIDIA RTX and NVIDIA RT Cores.
Get more insights into the NVIDIA Research that's helping professionals simplify complex design workflows, and learn about the latest announcement of Omniverse, now in open beta.
Additional Resources:
Register for the Omniverse open beta
Learn about Universal Scene Description at NVIDIA
Get the latest news on NVIDIA Omniverse
Dive deeper into Pixar USD
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
09/06/2026
Two Alumni Win Tony Awards Mike Morris and Cedric Leiba Jr. won awards for Best Orchestrations and Best Play, respectively.
June 8, 2026
By
Tori Donahue
...
08/06/2026
The two execs discuss the goals and the challenges of building a huge multi-cult...
08/06/2026
This industry legend has been a road warrior since the early '90s and is, today, a lynchpin on College GameDay
The sports-production industry continues to ...
08/06/2026
DAZN has agreed a multi-year rights partnership with Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC), expanding its global combat sports portfolio.
DAZN will broadcast EFC...
08/06/2026
As fans move across broadcast, streaming, social, mobile and creator-led platforms, and they expect every angle, in real time, TVU Networks has released a new e...
08/06/2026
Infront has further strengthened the 2026 Diamond League's international bro...
08/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced the appointment of Sam Craig as Vice President, Global Pre-Sales. Based in the United States, Craig will lead Grass Valley's glob...
08/06/2026
SMPTE has announced its summer 2026 education lineup covering IP networking and SMPTE ST 2110, including two standalone courses, a 13-week boot camp, and a hand...
08/06/2026
Sportradar Group AG has announced a multi-year global agreement with Kalshi, a p...
08/06/2026
FIFA and Gamefam have announced the launch of a FIFA World Cup 2026 event on Roblox, running June 5 through July 31, 2026. The event centers on FIFA Super Socce...
08/06/2026
A collaboration of NHL Productions, Monumental Sports, and Michael Levitt Produc...
08/06/2026
CBS Sports production staffer Bryce Adair has died at the age of 31 after sustaining injuries during a car accident on Wednesday while in Ohio working the the P...
08/06/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...
08/06/2026
WMT Digital today announced the launch of WMT Fan Intelligence, designed to unif...
08/06/2026
The Heat are the seventh NBA team to air their games over-the-air next season...
08/06/2026
Paramount and UFC have announced an expansion of their media rights partnership making Paramount the exclusive home of UFC Numbered Event main cards in Canada ...
08/06/2026
The Qatar Football Association (QFA), in cooperation with Sponix and broadcaster...
08/06/2026
Project B has announced the appointment of Host Broadcast Services (HBS) as Offi...
08/06/2026
The Buckeyes now produce and stream upwards of 200 sports events annually with a...
08/06/2026
At Spotify, our commitment to the LGBTQIA community is year-round. Through GLOW, our global music program, we celebrate and amplify the contributions of queer ...
08/06/2026
Get Hands-on With Keyboard & Synth Brands
GearExpo UK wouldn't be complete without some synth action, and we've got some of the industry's most ...
08/06/2026
50 popular in-ear monitoring system profiles added
The latest update for IK Multimedia's headphone-correction system has just arrived, and introduces ca...
08/06/2026
Manny Marroquin signature cans upgraded with SLAM Technology
The flagship model in Audeze's Manny Marroquin Signature Series has just been treated to an...
08/06/2026
Air domain supremacy redefined - New counter UAS, space solutions and directiona...
08/06/2026
he BBC and BritBox have announced that Edward Bluemel (We Might Regret This, My ...
08/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/06/2026
Dante interfaces, intercom and control systems for modern AV environments
Glensound will showcase a focused range of networked audio and intercom solutions fo...
08/06/2026
Bminty is proud to celebrate the first anniversary of T18, the new free national French DTT channel launched on June 6, 2025. This symbolic milestone also marks...
08/06/2026
DaVinci Resolve Used For Global Collaboration on Tony Foster Documentary
Brie Clayton June 8, 2026
0 Comments
DaVinci Resolve Studio and Blackmagic Cl...
08/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/06/2026
Plus, 20% off TVs ahead of kick-offMonday 8 June 2026
Sky introduces Real Time...
08/06/2026
FOX Secures Live NFL Game Package in Mexico Starting in Fall 2026 Agreement Features Thursday Night Football, Sunday Games Package, Thanksgiving Day Games, al...
08/06/2026
FOX One, FOX Sports and Indeed Name Austin Franklin and Kevin Akoto as FOX One C...
08/06/2026
Meet us on the show floor
Stand #286310 Discover Nara, the media management tool used by major facilities including Harbor and Molinare.
Nara v2 introduces re...
08/06/2026
L'art de l'Image dans Reflet dans un diamant mort' Une conversation avec le directeur de la photographie Manuel Dacosse, SBC et l' talonneur Pe...
08/06/2026
Embracing today's modern media workflows: FilmLight presents Nara 2.0, with FilmLight API Designed to support the growing demands of today's production ...
08/06/2026
Moderated by Andy Minuth, FilmLight's Colour Workflow Specialist
Wednesday 18 February
6:00pm / Doors open
7:00pm / Presentation in German
8:00pm / Drin...
08/06/2026
Join us on April 14 at 10:00am for a technical roundtable with the Filmlight dev...
08/06/2026
You're invited to FLAPI Classroom The fundamentals of coding and machine-assisted development
These sessions will help you build the skills needed to cre...
08/06/2026
With Sylvain Canaux (St Louis, Paris) and J r me Cloutier (MELS, Montreal)
Wednesday 6 May
Pick your time: 1:00PM / 5:00PM
Note: The presentation will be hel...
08/06/2026
FilmLight, 1107 N El Centro Ave, Los Angeles
Doors open at 3:30pm
Join the FilmLight team on June 9th at 4pm to learn how FilmLight products and APIs can stre...
08/06/2026
The Creators List launched to Help Brands Connect With Top Creators In CannesThe curated directory launched by Tubefilter, Comscore, Whalar Group and Gospel Sta...
08/06/2026
Irish YouTube star DavidMC joins Aisling O'Reilly to tackle all things socce...
07/06/2026
Company introduce 21 new protective covers
Decksaver have just announced their Sping 2026 Drop, which sees a total of 21 new models added to their ever-grow...
07/06/2026
How to Recreate the Star Trek TNG jump to warp in After Effects
Graham Quince June 7, 2026
0 Comments
In 1987, John Knoll at ILM had to use labor-inte...
07/06/2026
Filming Coffee Communities with Blackmagic PYXIS
Brie Clayton June 7, 2026
0 Comments
Remote travel, fast setups and hard sun shaped this documentary ...