3D Archive

Review: Ageia PhysX Physics Accelerator Chip

Thom Holwerda 2006-05-04 3D 41 Comments

El Reg has one of the first reviews of Ageia PyshX accelerator chip. The four-page review concludes: "The limited number of titles and their disappointing use of the PhysX PPU means that, currently, there's no reason to spend the GBP 200+ to acquire a PhysX card. The current effects in the supported games aren't worth the price and potential performance drop. Cell Factor and awesome Unreal Engine 3.0 games, where art thou? Without them, the PhysX hardware is merely a curiosity. But one to watch."

NVIDIA Linux, Solaris 1.0-8756 Drivers

Submitted by anonymous 2006-04-08 3D 23 Comments

For the first time this year, NVIDIA has officially published new Linux and Solaris display drivers for their GeForce and Quadro products. These drivers, versioned 1.0-8756, bring a couple new features such as GeForce 7600/7900 support as well as a new nvidia-auto-select program. This does mark their first alternative OS official release in nearly four months. No FreeBSD equivalent of these 1.0-8756 drivers are currently available. Phoronix takes a look at these new drivers.

Asus To Ship Ageia PhysX Add-in Boards

Thom Holwerda 2006-03-29 3D 10 Comments

Asus will begin shipping a dedicated physics processing board based on Ageia's PhysX PPU in May, the company said today. The card contains 256MB of memory dedicated to environment calculations designed to make virtual worlds feel more real to game players. Ageia announced PhysX last week. It claims that 60 developers - including UbiSoft, Cryptic Studios, NCSoft, Epic Games and Sega - are working on 100 games with support for the company's physics calculation API.

HP: the SLI Godfather?

Submitted by Phoronix 2006-03-26 3D 8 Comments

Phoronix takes a look at nVIDIA's SLI and nVIDIA's efforts to support alternative operating systems, such as Linux, BSD, and Solaris, and how HP fits into all that. "While this NVIDIA SLI support can still be considered very much rudimentary compared against the Microsoft Windows support with the ForceWare drivers, which were introduced back on November 9 of 2004, there is no clear sight for how it will ultimately fair in the world of Linux. According to some information we have obtained from our sources and research, NVIDIA's motives for Linux SLI may largely dissent from the public opinion. In this article today, there are a few comments we would like to share about the big green manufacturer and their outlook on alternative operating systems."

Inside the PhysX Physics Accelerator

Submitted by Nicholas Blachford 2006-03-16 3D 14 Comments

"3D acceleration is a long established standard part of today’s systems yet it started life as an exotic, expensive add on. Last year Ageia announced a new kind of add on, their PhysX chip is a new technology specifically designed for accelerating physics processing in games. Why should a physics chip interest gamers? What does it do? How does it work?"

A Simple Shading Example in OpenGL Shading Language

Eugenia Loli 2006-03-12 3D 1 Comment

In this example, Randi J. Rost applies a brick pattern to an object. The brick pattern is calculated entirely within a fragment shader. This example consists of three essential components: the source code for the vertex shader, the source code for the fragment shader, and the application code that initializes and uses these shaders. It focuses on the vertex and fragment shaders.

Open Graphics Project Releases PCB Schematics to OGD1

Submitted by Timothy Miller 2006-03-02 3D 23 Comments

The Open Graphics Project is dedicated to producing open-architecture graphics hardware that is friendly to free and open source operating systems like Linux and BSD. Yesterday morning, they released schematics for OGD1 for public review and critique. OGD1 is an FPGA-based development and prototyping platform that they decided to turn into a commercial product to raise funds. Check out an article on KernelTrap. The release of these schematics was accompanied by a discussion about how to price the OGD1 to maximize fund-raising while keeping it accessible to hobbyists; KernelTrap has another article about that as well.

ATI: Unsupported and Bitter

Submitted by Kombatant 2006-02-22 3D 91 Comments

"ATI's R5xx line was first released back in October 2005. The initial launch covered the X1800 and X1300 series, with the X1600 series following suit in November. Last month we saw the release of the new X1900 series too. Now, let me count the months from October to February; it is 5 months, right? Well, believe it or not, that's the number of months the new X1000 series is out in the market without Linux support. If you are unfortunate enough to own such a card, all you have is Matthew Tippett's statement in Phoronix."

Xinerama vs. TwinView

Submitted by Michael Larabel 2006-02-04 3D 25 Comments

"When it comes to a multi-headed environment under Linux, there are two popular options for consumers - Xinerama and TwinView. TwinView was developed by NVIDIA for allowing multiple monitors to be powered by a single GPU with their array of GeForce graphics cards. On the other hand, Xinerama was originally developed by DEC under the name of PanoramiX, and was later incorporated into the X Windows System as Xinerama. With Xinerama and TwinView being two of the popular multi-headed options for Linux users, we have decided to study the frame-rate performance for both of these configurations, as well as a traditional single-head setup, under a variety of popular games."

Review: NVIDIA Quadro FX3400 Professional Graphics Card

Submitted by Mayank Sahai 2006-01-30 3D 6 Comments

"We've have always wondered whether a professional card, such as the NVIDIA Quadro FX series, can let us play games with as much ease as its GeForce counterparts. The reason is that most of the games are designed for consumer-end cards, so it makes sense that if the very cards that design the games should be able to play those games as well."

ATI PowerPlay Benchmarked

Submitted by Michael Larabel 2006-01-09 3D No Comments

"Introduced in ATI's v8.19.10 proprietary display drivers for their RADEON series was support for PowerPlay. For the uninitiated, ATI's PowerPlay allows the user to specify various 'power-states', or rather various frequencies and voltages at which the card can operate. The purpose for these various performance levels is ultimately to allow mobile users to save on battery life through running at reduced speeds when not performing strenuous 3D tasks."

NVIDIA: a Year in Review 2005

Submitted by Michael Larabel 2005-12-29 3D 9 Comments

"In continuation of our previous piece entitled 'Ati: a Year in Review 2005', where we looked at ATI's features implemented this year into their Linux drivers as well as thoroughly examining the frame-rate performance, today we have turned the tables yet again and are taking another look at NVIDIA's gains this year. In addition, due to popular request, and keeping with the standards set by the previous ATI article, we will also be comparing our results against that of the latest NVIDIA ForceWare Windows display drivers."

ATI Year in Review 2005

Submitted by Phoronix 2005-12-27 3D 37 Comments

As 2005 comes to an end, both NVIDIA and ATI have fought a competitive battle not only when it comes to their hardware lineup but also display drivers for alternative operating systems. When discussing this subject matter, GNU/Linux users have been quick to criticize ATI Technologies whether it is due to poor installation support, distribution compatibility, rudimentary control panel, or simply the performance level of its drivers.

Through Project Looking Glass with Hideya Kawahara

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-10 3D 26 Comments

3D has practically taken over video gaming. Lifelike, if not very pleasant, worlds exist aplenty--worlds that most users find easily navigable without any training whatsoever. Is the world of spreadsheets, word processors, and the like just unsuitable for 3D? Is it a case of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"? Or is it that we've lacked imagination? John Littler recently talked to Hideya Kawahara about an open source 3D desktop project that he started and that Sun subsequently took under its wing.

AGEIA PhysX Expansion Card Release Date Confirmed

Submitted by Raghu Bhagwan 2005-11-23 3D 23 Comments

"We are all aware of AGEIA and its desire to bring a PhysX processor for physics processing in order to make games look and feel more realistic. We all want the characters to move and act realistically, and that's exactly what AGEIA's PhysX will accomplish once it debuts. However, in order for the technology to work, it requires an expansion card for the motherboard. ASUS will debut the card in February 2006 when more games become available to take advantage of AGEIA's innovation."

Review: 3Dconnexion SpacePilot

Submitted by anonymous 2005-11-08 3D 1 Comment

"What the heck is it? would be the average observer’s first question. Looking at the 3Dconnexion SpacePilot, it is difficult to discern exactly what a device like this could be used for. Somewhere between a doorknob, a calculator, and a fragment of a stealth bomber cockpit, the SpacePilot clearly means business. But what type of business?"

Fujitsu To Manufacture 3D Graphics Processors for S3 Graphics

Thom Holwerda 2005-11-03 3D 7 Comments

"S3 Graphics and Fujitsu Limited today announced that Fujitsu will be producing the new range of S3 Graphics' high performance graphics processors, which leverage Fujitsu's 90 nanometer process technology to enable the realization of graphics processors that feature high speeds and industry-leading performance per watt."

Open Graphics Project Status Update

Submitted by Timothy Miller 2005-10-04 3D 26 Comments

"It's been a while since the last update on the Open Graphics Project, so I've put together this article to fill in the community on what's been happening, what's going to happen, and how we can make what happens happen faster."

General Purpose Computation Using a GPU

Submitted by Flavio Villanustre 2005-08-14 3D 22 Comments

Graphics hardware has grown from a simple display controller to a full fledged specialized processing unit, in the last 10 years. The amount of included memory has increased from a mere few Kilobytes to hundreds of Megabytes. But what other uses can be found for your videocard when you’re not playing a game or using the latest CAD package?

Build a Digital Animation System

Submitted by anonymous 2005-08-08 3D 3 Comments

Growth in the Digital Special Effects and computer animation industry, a sub-segment of the media and entertainment industry, is exploding world wide. A number of reasons have caused this growth and they involve the merging of technology and imagination.This article illustrates the dynamics and business model and processes of the animation effects industry and introduce the existing infrastructure.

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