New Release of mental mill(R) Artist Edition Software Bundled with NVIDIA(R) FX Composer(TM)...

New Release of mental mill(R) Artist Edition Software Bundled with NVIDIA(R) FX Composer(TM) 2.5

Innovative Shader Creation Tool Works in Conjunction with NVIDIA's
Shader Development Environment and New Shader Debugger to Streamline
Content Creation
SANTA CLARA, Calif. & BERLIN--(Business Wire)--
mental images(R), a global leader in rendering software and
visualization tools for animators, visual effects artists and
professionals who create high quality imagery, and NVIDIA(R)
(Nasdaq:NVDA) today announced that an updated beta version of mental
mill(R) Artist Edition will be bundled with NVIDIA's FX Composer(TM)
2.5. This combination of advanced technologies, and the new NVIDIA
Shader Debugger plug-in for FX Composer, facilitates the creation of
shaders across all popular platforms.

The mental mill Artist Edition software is a shader creation tool
for all levels of expertise. It has an intuitive graphical interface
that enables artists, designers and shader developers to create, test
and maintain shaders with real-time feedback - without the need for
programming skills that are usually required. With mental mill shaders
become platform and environment agnostic, allowing future-proof
shaders to be written once and used regardless of emerging
technologies.

"The response that we have received since the initial release of
mental mill Artist Edition last year has been enormously positive."
said Rolf Herken, CEO and CTO of mental images. "Artists appreciate
the new-found creative control that mental mill provides. The new
features and enhancements included in this latest version of mental
mill are the result of user feedback and our commitment to create
solutions that integrate seamlessly into their existing design and
entertainment content creation pipelines."

This latest release of mental mill Artist Edition includes a
number of features and enhancements designed to make the graphical
interface easier to navigate. In addition to these improvements and
preview rendering enhancements, there are new shaders included in the
toolbox. Customer export is a now available with new compiler options
that the user can control. This includes shader export for FX
Composer.

"mental mill Artist Edition has redefined the way we at Blue
Castle Games work with shaders and rendering tasks in general. mental
mill empowers the artists to take control of the esthetics of
rendering, and enabled rendering programmers to work more closely with
the artists to deliver esthetically superlative results," said Izmeth
Siddeek, Senior Visual Development Artist at Vancouver-based Blue
Castle Games. "It represents a real paradigm shift in how we work. We
started using mental mill on a single project as a test case, and were
so pleased with the cost and time savings, as well as the superior
results, that Blue Castle is now integrating it into all of our
projects in development."

Bundled with NVIDIA's FX Composer 2.5, an integrated development
environment for fast creation of real-time visual effects, mental mill
Artist Edition is an integral part of the shader development pipeline.
Together mental mill and FX Composer 2.5 can be used to create shaders
for HLSL, COLLADA(TM) FX Cg, and CgFX in DirectX and OpenGL. This
latest release features:

-- DirectX 10 Support

-- ShaderPerf with GeForce 8 Series Support

-- Visual Models & Styles

-- Particle Systems

-- Improved User Interface

Additionally, developers can use NVIDIA's new Shader Debugger,
released as a plug-in for FX Composer 2.5, which enables debugging
capabilities for CgFX and HLSL shaders, and those exported by mental
mill.

NVIDIA's bundling of mental mill Artist Edition with FX Composer
2.5 signals the company's adoption of MetaSL(TM) as a standard. MetaSL
is the universal meta shader language developed by mental images.
Using MetaSL, shaders are created once, independent of the target
platforms, and compiled into highly efficient code for execution on
general purpose CPUs, GPUs, and custom processors.

"NIVIDIA supports mental images in their mission to provide the
best technologies to our core customers while also making them
accessible to non-technical design professionals and an increased
range of industries," said Jeff Brown, general manager, Professional
Solutions, NVIDIA. "The combination of FX Composer 2.5 and mental mill
provides a suite of powerful tools that make it easier to achieve
high-end results in a more efficient way."

A standalone beta version of mental mill with additional features
for debugging and shader programming is currently available at
www.mentalimages.com.

NVIDIA FX Composer 2.5, which includes mental mill Artist Edition,
is available for download at: www.fxcomposer.com. More information
about the NVIDIA Shader Debugger is available at
www.shaderdebugger.com.

Developers are encouraged to visit the NVIDIA developer web site
(http://developer.nvidia.com) and the NVIDIA Developer Tools forums
(http://developer.nvidia.com/forums).

About mental images: mental images(R), founded in 1986, is the
recognized international leader in providing component and platform
software for the creation, manipulation and visualization of 3D
content. Its world leading rendering and other technologies are used
by the entertainment, computer-aided design, architecture, scientific
visualization, and other industries that require sophisticated images
primarily as part of their software products and application services.
mental images is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NVIDIA Corporation with
headquarters in Berlin, Germany, a subsidiary in the United States,
mental images, Inc., and a subsidiary in Melbourne, Australia, mental
images Pty.. mental images has a multinational staff of top qualified
engineers exclusively dedicated to basic research and development in
the area of 3D graphics and 3D Web Applications and Services
technologies. For more information, visit www.mentalimages.com.

About NVIDIA: NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) is the world leader in visual
computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, a high-performance
processor which generates breathtaking, interactive graphics on
workstations, personal computers, game consoles, and mobile devices.
NVIDIA serves the entertainment and consumer market with its
GeForce(R) products, the professional design and visualization market
with its Quadro(R) products, and the high-performance computing market
with its Tesla(TM) products. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara,
Calif. and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
NVIDIA's inaugural NVISION 08 conference will be held August 25-27,
2008 in San Jose, Calif. For more information, visit www.nvidia.com
and www.nvision08.com.

Trademarks: mental images(R), mental mill(R), are registered
trademarks and MetaSL(TM) is a trademarks of mental images GmbH,
Berlin, Germany, in the United States and/ or other countries. Other
product and company names in this document may be trademarks of their
respective owners.

Copyright (C) 2007 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights
reserved. NVIDIA, GeForce, NVPerfKit, and FX Composer are registered
trademarks and/or trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the United
States and other countries. PLAYSTATION and COLLADA are registered
trademarks and/or trademarks of Sony Corporation. All other company
and/or product names may be trade names, trademarks and/or registered
trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated.
Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to
change without notice.

Editors Note: mental mill will be on display on the NVIDIA booth
#554/655 at Siggraph 2008, August 12 - 14, 2008, Los Angeles, CA.

for mental images
Double Forte Marketing + Communications
Elizabeth Olson, +1-415-848-8116
eolson@double-forte.com
or
NVIDIA Corporation
Ken Brown, +1-408-486-2626
kebrown@nvidia.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008