Last Updated: 10 / 08 / 2009

Cg Toolkit - GPU Shader Authoring Language

The award-winning Cg Toolkit enables software developers to add the latest interactive effects to real-time applications with a comprehensive solution that works across platforms and graphics API containing:

Compiler for the Cg 2.2 language
Cg/CgFX Runtime libraries for OpenGL and Direct3D
User’s Manual and documentation on the Cg Language, Runtime APIs, Cg Library, CgFX States, and Cg Profiles
Numerous Cg examples

Supporting dozens of different OpenGL and DirectX profile targets, Cg 2.2 allows you to incorporate stunning, interactive effects within your 3D applications and share them between other Cg applications, across graphics APIs, and most operating systems (Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X for Tiger & Leopard, x86 Linux 32-bit & 64-bit, x86 Solaris 32-bit & 64-bit).

Latest Cg Toolkit Features

The October 2009 version of Cg 2.2 includes these improvements:

Support for compiler options in CgFX compile statements
Enhanced performance when running on multicore CPUs
Selecting the "latest" profile is now deferred until an effect is validated
Better memory behavior when a program is repeatedly recompiled

See the release notes for a complete list of changes.

Version 2.2 of the Cg Toolkit adds capabilities and profiles to fully support all currently shipping graphics boards from NVIDIA. Applications leveraging Cg can now take advantage of:

“Latest” compiling option to easily leverage the latest GPU capabilities and performance
Support for geometry programs with DirectX10 and GLSL translation profiles
Support for pack_matrix() pragma improves HLSL compatibility
Fifteen new APIs for new features and added flexibility
Solaris 64-bit support
Expanded documentation and additional samples

Version 2.1 of the Cg Toolkit provided the following features and improvements:

New Direct3D 10 profiles (vs_4_0 and ps_4_0) to cross-translate Cg to HLSL10
New Runtime library for Direct3D 10
Virtual file system for including source during shader compilation
Improvements to the GLSL translation profile
Documentation updates for all new API and features
New examples demonstrating Direct3D10 usage and more
Runtime performance improvements and bug fixes
Compatibility with Cg 2.0

The November and February 2009 updates of Cg 2.1 correct issues found in the immediately prior release.