French graphics firm GPU-tech has announced that the company will release its RTSquare Renderer Plugin for 3D Studio Max on May 2, the first product from the fledgling firm. The 3D rendering software is designed with a new architecture to accelerate rendering by taking advantage of the programmability, performance, and quality of a PC's Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) in order to render imagery at high speeds at quality. The company's software is designed to take advantage of the more powerful graphics boards and programmable GPUs on the market today. Such technology makes possible the development of software such as the RTSquare Renderer Plugin, which GPU-tech claims can cut computing time by up to 50 percent. RTSquare offers popular features used by 3D Studio Max, such as soft shadows, reflections, refractions, global illumination, and caustics. Several special effects are also included, such as depth of field, fog, and lens flares.