NVIDIA sees AI as a way to put new tools in the hands of gamers and creators alike. NVIDIA Instant NeRF is one such tool, harnessing the power of NVIDIA’s GPUs to make generating complex 3D creations orders of magnitude easier. Instant NeRF is an especially powerful tool because of its ability to create these 3D scenes and objects.
Essentially, NVIDIA Instant NeRF takes a series of 2D images, figures out how they overlap, and uses that knowledge to create a full 3D scene. A NeRF (or Neural Radiance Field) is nothing new, but the process of creating one hasn’t been quick. By applying machine learning techniques to the process and specialized hardware, NVIDIA was able to make it much faster, enough to be virtually instantaneous – thus Instant NeRF.
The ability to take a series of photos or even record a video of a scene and then convert them into a freely explorable 3D environment offers artists a new realm of creative possibilities. It also provides a quick way to convert a real-world object into a 3D object.
Some artists are already realizing the potential of Instant NeRF. In a few artists’ showcasesNVIDIA highlights the ability of artists to share historical artworks, capture memories and allow viewers of the artworks to more fully immerse themselves in the scenes without being tied to the original composition.
Karen X. Cheng explores the potential of this tool in her creation, Through the looking glassthat NVIDIA uses Instant NeRF to create the 3D scene that its camera ventures through, eventually sliding through a mirror into an upside-down world.
Hugues Bruyère uses Instant NeRF in his creation, Zeus, to present a historic sculpture from the Royal Ontario Museum in a new way. This gives those who may never get the chance to see it in person the opportunity to still see it from all angles.
With tools like Instant NeRF, it’s clear that NVIDIA’s latest hardware has much more than just gamers in mind. With more and more dedicated AI power built into each chip, NVIDIA RTX GPUs bring new levels of AI performance to the table that can serve gamers and creators alike.
The same Tensor Cores that make it possible to infer what a 4K frame in a game would look like using a 1080p frame as a reference also make it possible to infer what a fully fleshed out 3D scene would look like using a series of 2D images. And with the latest GPUs from NVIDIA, you have these tools right in your hands.
Instant NeRF is not something you just hear about. It’s actually a tool you can try out for yourself. Developers can get started right away this guideand less technical users can grab a simpler version Windows installer here which even includes a demo photo set. Because Instant NeRF runs on RTX GPUs, it is widely available, although the latest RTX 40 series and RTX Ada GPUs can deliver results even faster.
NVIDIA’s hardware’s ability to accelerate AI is key to powering a new generation of AI PCs. Instant NeRF is just one of many examples of how NVIDIA’s GPUs enable new capabilities or dramatically accelerate existing tools. To help you explore the latest developments in AI and present them in an easy-to-understand format, NVIDIA has created the AI decoded blog series. You can also see all the ways NVIDIA is improving AI performance at NVIDIA RTX for AI page.