GPU manufacturer NVIDIA may first be known for its work in providing powerful hardware for PC videogames, but it is also exploring plenty of other areas. One of these is product design and rendering. To that end, the company has this week announced DesignWorks, a brand new set of tools that will enable users to create photorealistic renders of products. As to be expected by the company by this point in time, DesignWorks also comes with several virtual reality (VR) specific features for even more realistic experiences.

As explained over on the company’s official blog, the system allows users to utilise NVIDIA’s physically based rendering (PBR) and physically based materials to design items as they would appear in real life. Included in the set are features like the company’s Iray SDK, Material Definition Language, vMaterials, and OptiX. There’s also DesignWorks VR, a set of tools that will allow developers to support VR head-mounted displays (HMDs) with their software design. Using the likes of the Oculus Rift, teams will be able to create products that might actually feel as if they are in front of you.

NVIDIA is even proving how confident it is in this technology at SIGGRAPH 2015 in Los Angeles, California this week at booth #500. As seen in the video below, the company is set to host a ‘Real Or Rendered’ competition in which attendees are invited to head to its booth and look at two depictions of a drill on a screen. One will be the real object that came from the render itself while the other will be the rendered counterpart. It’s up to attendees to figure out which is which.

VRFocus will continue to follow Nvidia’s work in VR closely, reporting back with the latest updates.