3D Archive

Both nVidia (also nForce) and Ati have released beta versions of their driver packages for Windows Vista, both client and server editions. ActiveWin also has a list of drivers included in Vista beta 1.

It's the tenth anniversary of DirectX. In honor of this occasion we spoke with Chris Donahue, the group manager for Windows gaming and graphics. Chris discusses the evolution of DirectX, the impact of the next Windows (Longhorn) and 64-bit gaming, how XNA will help developers on Windows and Xbox, where Windows gaming is headed and much more.

SciTech Software, Inc. today announced that it has released SciTech SNAP Graphics 3.0 for Linux. It offers support for XFree86 and X.org. SciTech SNAP Graphics delivers advanced 2D acceleration for business users, Plug-N-Play support for hundreds of graphics cards and now provides advanced XVideo acceleration for ATI’s desktop and mobile graphics processor, making enterprise wide deployment and management easier and more powerful than ever.

nVIDIA now has 3D drivers and OpenGL libraries for Xorg on Solaris 10. This brings the same level of functionality for the nVIDIA cards to Solaris that Linux and BSD have had already. Now, it's ATi's turn...

VIA releases Linux Driver source packages: On top of the UniChrome drivers, VIA also offers display driver sources for the VIA ProSavage and ProSavage DDR integrated graphics controllers as well as the integrated Network driver source supporting six VIA Chipset South Bridges.

XGI has released some source code of their Linux driver hoping for some help from the community.

A company named Tech Source has stepped up to create an open source 2D/3D graphics card. The project has an open mailing list and a spec proposal for the final card can be downloaded here. This project is a groundbreaking effort at creating truely open hardware, and is great chance for everyone who is interested in 2D/3D programming to see how a modern graphics card works.

If you're not programming games or video, should you just forget about DirectX? Not necessarily.

OpenGL 2.0 was formally launched today and with it the completion of the graphics API's Shading Language specification for vertex- and pixel-shader programming. OpenGL Shading Language was approved by the OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB) in June 2003 as an extension to OpenGL 1.4, which has since been updated to version 1.5.

Since the earliest games of Ping Pong and Pac man, graphics have evolved quite a bit. The technology in which to render them has also evolved into complex and speedy graphics processing units. From primitive software acceleration to the current hardware and software acceleration, graphics have become more efficient, more complex, and most importantly, more beautiful than ever before.

This download provides the DirectX 9.0c end-user package that devs can include with their product.

Randi Rost gives an example of the coding needed for shading in OpenGL, including the code for the vertex shader, the fragment shader, and the application code used to initialize these shaders.

There's a new screenshot over at directfb.org that shows the new TextureTriangles() method using existing windows as the texture. Every change in the original window is immediately visible in the transformed presentation.

In this article, six widely used algorithms in graphics rendering of indoor and outdoor environments are discussed, namely: quad-based static terrain, Roettger's approach to continuous levels-of-detail in terrain, real-time optimally adapting meshes, portals, BSPs and PVSs. In each case the algorithm is discussed and some aspects of implementation are considered, as well as analyize each algorithm for its application in modern graphics systems. More graphics articles here.