King of the swingers

I just got back from an afternoon with Padraig Harrington at the Urban Golf Centre in EC1.

The Irish golf champ gave a dozen or so tech journos a few golf tips and the inside scoop on Shaderlight 1.0 — one of his many technology investments. The rendering software, which was just launched by Cambridge-based ArtVPS, allows 3D artists to change the materials, environment, lighting and texture in a scene as quickly as you can click a mouse button.

ArtVPS are initially marketing the technology for product designers and architects.

The technology is based on what the guys behind the product call ‘intelligent pixels’ that ‘understand’ where they are in a scene and how they relate to the 3D world.

So the rendering software would make alterations to not only the immediate object you want to change, but it would also make modifications to anywhere in the scene where the object might be reflected in such as a mirror.

The technology stuff is all fun and games, Padraig said, and his investments in various firms helps him take his mind off golf once and a while.

Not that technology is so far removed from the golf course though. Padraig did admit technology has improved performance in the game dramatically and golf purists shouldn’t be put off by it.

‘They’ve complained technology has been changing the game for over a hundred years,’ he said.