Atomontage launches early version of cloud-based volumetric graphics

Atomontage has launched an early version of its microvoxel technology that it says offers a new way of creating computer graphics for video games and computer simulations. The advantage of the cloud-based volumetric graphics is that it uses breakthroughs in 3D data compression so that it becomes a lot easier to share 3D imagery with vast amounts of detail.

The startup Atomontage has been working on the tech for more than four years, but the idea behind it goes back decades. Voxels used in games like Minecraft are a good example of the technology, but in a kind of crude form as they’re relatively big Lego-like bricks that are used to construct images. But Atomontage’s voxels are so small — they’re called microvoxels — that they can be used to create much more fine-grained images than other types of graphics.