3D Archive

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.

This is an unsupported Pre-Release version of DirectX 9.0 and may contain bugs or issues that prevent correct operation of DirectX applications. The DirectX 9.0 runtime cannot be uninstalled, so users should create a “System Restore” point before installing. This pre-release version expires on March 19, 2003. On other 3D news, here is an article about OpenGL's future.

Some months ago we reported on Ton's effort to Free his powerful 3D rendering package under the GPL, Blender. After almost 4 months and 100,000 euros, Blender is now completely free for all.

AnandTech has reviewed ATI's latest mobile graphics solution. According to the reviewer this small and energy efficient chip is the new king when it comes to mobile graphic chips for notebooks. Also John Carmack is apparently very positive about the chip and also stated that Doom 3 will be able to run smoothly with this new Radeon chip.

It is possible to easily enable Quartz Extreme (QE) on G3s or G4s that do not have a QE compatible AGP 2x graphics card. The hack is described here. From some tests that users did, it seems that only the G3/G4 machines with 66 MHz PCI bus saw some acceleration. Machines with 33 Mhz PCI bus, did not. The hack would work only if you have a Radeon or a GeForce2MX+ card, because they share the same driver with their AGP versions (QE only works on Radeons and GeForce2+ -- ATi Rage cards do not work at all with QE, with or without hacks). Also, please note that users who enabled QE on their unsupported PCI machines, had major artifacts on some applications, most notably iTunes' visual playback (quite possibly because the PCI bus is not fast enough for what is required).

The campaign to free Blender's sources has officially started. 100,000 Euro are needed in order Blender to become open source and be the first truly powerful 3D rendering package for the OSS community. If you can spare some money this weekend, help this great application get freed.

"Silicon Graphics (SGI) and a group of other major players in the computer graphics industry have released the latest specification for the OpenGL application programming interface, OpenGL 1.4. The new version includes a number of improvements designed to better take advantage of the latest 3D graphics hardware." The news story is at ZDNews, but get the whole picture at OpenGL.org.

Microsoft DirectX 8.1b is the latest version of the DirectX technology, an important and significant part of the Windows operating systems. This version of DirectX can replace the all previous released versions of DirectX. It includes several critical fixes for Direct3D and DirectShow components. In related news, industry sources have confirmed that Microsoft's DirectX 9 is likely to arrive in October, quite a while later than ATI's R300 Nvidia-buster.

"OpenGL 2.0 timing: Worth fighting over? 3DLabs thinks so. And is Nvidia's Cg an open standard or a proprietary grab for control of graphics development?" Read the story at ExtremeTech. "Justified pride or proud parent syndrome? Marketing VP Dan Wood tells Dave Salvator how and why Parhelia will move 3D gaming to a whole new level." Read the story at ExtremeTech.

On this Chinese website you can already see some pictures of Matrox' new graphics chip code-named "Parhelia" in action. An English translation of another russian source can be found here. Note this information was meant to be under NDA until the 14th of May. The pictures at this webpage show a three monitor display setup, demonstrating Quake3 Arena, a flight simulator and Adobe Photoshop. The text talks about a 20GB/s memory bandwidth, other sources indicate 19GB/s! An announcement by Matrox is expected on the 14th of May.

There have been rumours spreading regarding a new graphics chip being developed at Matrox, which will put them at the forefront of State-of-the-Art 3D graphics technology once again. Recently this specs sheet leaked out on Matrox' website, according to TechNation. Interestingly Ben Hermans, the manager of the AmigaOS4 project stated, that they have seen this new technology at work and it severely outperforms nVidia's current top offerings. It is expected it will still take around two months before "G1000 graphic card" solutions become available to the general public. My Take: Together with ATI they might be able to finally break down the current anti-competitive nature of the graphics industry, regarding alternative OS driver support.