3D Archive

OpenGL, the decade-old mother of all graphics application programming interfaces (APIs), is getting two significant updates to bring it into the 21st century.

The SphereXP is a 3D desktop replacement for Microsoft Windows XP (still beta). It offers a new way to organize objects on the desktop. Check the videos and screenshots to get the idea.

Beyond3D had the opportunity to speak with Chris Donahue of Microsoft recently. Being the Lead Evangelist for Windows when it comes to convincing developers that Windows is the best there is, we decided to ask him a variety of questions, ranging from what he actually does, to DirectX and its importance, to companies like NVIDIA and ATI , to the next major Microsoft operating system codenamed Longhorn. Chris was previously the manager of Developer Relations at NVIDIA so he should provide some interesting insights about working with the independent hardware vendors as well.

S3 is back on the scene with its first new GPU architecture in five years. Rather than take aim at the high-end, S3 has set its sights on the midrange price/performance category, which is currently dominated by ATI's Radeon 9600 XT and nVidia's GeForce FX 5700, both of which are under $200. Today S3 unveils the DeltaChrome S8 GPU, which represents the midrange of its upcoming line of DeltaChrome GPUs.

A new player dares to enter the graphics card market that ATi and Nvidia have dominated for so long. XGI (eXtreme Graphics Innovation), based in Taiwan, comes at the market leaders with a line of cards for a whole lot less money. Tom's Hardware looks at XGI's product range, and offer results of a beta model from XGI´s top model Volari Duo V8 Ultra. The site also has a benchmark article on the latest Nvidia cards Vs the latest Radeons, but it is interesting to see some new blood in the market that have left S3, SiS, Matrox, Trident and Intel i8xx as secondary players or in 'survival mode'.

SGI recently announced a contest. The coder of the OpenGL API demo judged best by a panel of judges will receive a $40,000 Onyx4 UltimateVision visualization machine, running IRIX. The contest is open to US and Canadian residents.

In an excerpt from the forthcoming book ShaderX2 - Introduction and Tutorials with DirectX 9, Craig Peeper and Jason Mitchell present a detailed introduction to the Microsoft DirectX High Level Shading Language, including a number of example shaders and optimization strategies.

SGI and OpenGL architecture review board announced the OpenGL 1.5 specification, introducing support for a "revolutionary" OpenGL Shading Language. Also, SGI and Sun Microsystems' Software Platforms to work seamlessly together with Java bindings to OpenGL. I wonder if this new OpenGL 1.5 spec clashes with 3DLabs' suggested 2.0 specification somehow.

DirectX 9.0a is an updated version of the DirectX 9.0 runtime which includes bug fixes and improves performance in the graphics and networking components. There are no new or modified APIs in this release. What's new or fixed:

At last week's WinHEC show, Nvidia Chief Scientist David Kirk pontificated on where 3D graphics rendering is going over the next decade. What can you expect? Photorealistic rendering and cinematic realism, of course. Bottom line -- it's not about pushing clock speeds and pixel rates, but rather making pixels much better looking!

The paper considers a mathematical model of the behavior of an assembly of N stars. The 'Kepler' Microsoft Windows demo application based of this model enables to perform real-time simulation of star clusters dynamics for N~=2500. Such performance rate is possible through the use of the Intel Integrated Performance Primitives (IPP) library. The paper also estimates the efficiency of the IPP application and provides an example of C-code with the IPP functions calls. Computer-simulated images of the spiral galaxy forming process, as well as the real galaxies photos, are presented.

A new DirectX 9.0a End-User Runtime download has appeared on the Microsoft website. This release resolves an issue with DirectX 9.0 where some multiplayer games or MSN Messenger may not work correctly. A number of minor bugs were also resolved.

"After long weeks of impatient waiting, it has finally arrived. NVIDIA has distributed the first GeForceFX cards to the press. Now, NVIDIA has to prove that it really has what it takes to topple ATI and its successful Radeon 9700 PRO from the throne." Benchmarks on TomsHardware, ExtremeTech, AnandTech and Hard|OCP.

Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX 9.0 includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX 9.0 APIs.Update: SDK download listing.