NDL was founded in 1983 by Turner Whitted, a computer graphics pioneer and adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina, and Robert Whitton, a mathematics professor at Davidson College. The company maintains close ties with the computer science department at the University of North Carolina, with many of NDL's software engineers graduating from that department. Dr. Whitton continues to teach at Davidson College and Dr. Whitted is now a senior researcher in Microsoft Research's hardware devices and graphics groups.

"Turner and Robert's vision for the company has always been technical innovation, 3D graphics, and outstanding relationships with customers, employees, and partners," said John Austin, chief executive officer of NDL. "Our success has been built on a shared passion for 3D graphics and the extraordinarily talented software engineers who have worked at NDL during the last twenty years. We look forward to continuing to do what we do best - innovating and developing 3D graphics technology in a great company environment."

Today, NDL's flagship product is Gamebryo, a real-time 3D graphics engine and tools used in the creation of computer and video games for the PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. Top-selling titles Dark Age of Camelot from Mythic Entertainment and Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind from Bethesda Softworks are among the more than 50 games that have been released using NDL's graphics engine. It was originally launched in 1997 as NetImmerse, and in 1999 won Game Developer magazine's "Front Line Award" honoring excellence and innovation in tools for game development.

The company's first products, Rendition and rPlus, provided 3D graphics rendering technology used in leading CAD, multimedia, and visualization graphics packages including Autodesk's AutoCAD, IBM's Data Visualizer, and Caligari's trueSpace. The company also played key consulting roles in diverse graphics projects for clients such as Adobe Systems, IBM, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Interactive Magic.