Last Updated:
07
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17
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2002
. In this month's issue:
Upcoming Event: NVIDIA: The Gathering 2
NVIDIA's Developer Relations group is excited to host...
'The Gathering 2', at the Hilton Metropole hotel in Paddington, London on June 13th and 14th. Two days of focused technical tutorial sessions will give you the opportunity to test your software reflexes on NVIDIA's latest, greatest and future hardware and tools. We'll train you in the secrets of effective Direct3D programming, from basic to advanced techniques, and turn you into a master of Direct3D!
If you were worried that three hundred and thirty seven earth pounds (plus VAT) seemed like a lot, then keep in mind that the conference cost also includes a free GeForce4 Ti graphics card!
NVIDIA Software Development Kit (SDK) 5.2 Released
NVIDIA is proud to release the NVSDK5.2.1, an upgrade to the major components of the developer's toolkit. The NVEffectsBrowser 3.0 has been expanded and now you will find hundreds of effects and permutations of the latest graphics effects possible with NVIDIA GPUs.
We've also added a patch for those who have already downloaded version 5.2 of the NVSDK to enable the updating feature. Click here to download the patch.
Linux CVS users can find Manual Update information here.
We recommend that you use the Detonator XP v28.32 drivers. You can find our latest drivers at here.
Game Developer's Conference Talks Online
We recently concluded a great GDC and it was fantastic to see all of our partners and developers at the booth and in the sessions. We've compiled all of our GDC content and placed it on the Developer site.
Got Art? Get Quadro! Artwork from Our GDC contest
During the Game Developers Conference 2002, NVIDIA hosted an art competition to give away Quadro4™ XGL boards. In what was arguably the most popular booth at the show, artists were given a blank sheet of paper and 20 minutes to conjure up scenes or characters from their imaginations. Hundreds upon hundreds of drawings were produced, resulting in an intense competition producing a myriad of impressive masterpieces, and many lucky artists walking away with Quadro4 XGL cards! In addition, Mark Baxter, a game designer at Soma Studios, won the grand prize: a Dell Precision M40 Mobile Workstation with Quadro2 Go valued at $4100!
For more, click here.
Transmogrifying Textures Volume I from the NVSDK-Art
A free collection of over 200 high-resolution, general-purpose, tiling, production-ready, real-time texture maps. Download them and use them in your work!
For more information on the tools and resources for Artist click here.
Interested in Authoring a Book for NVIDIA?
NVIDIA is looking for an author to work on a book about our next-generation technology. We are looking for someone who has experience with 3D graphics and shaders, and who has the time to focus on writing a high-quality book. If you or someone you know has both the interest and the skills for this project, please send e-mail to devrelfeedback@nvidia.com with the subject "AUTHOR." Please include a brief paragraph in the message body explaining why you would be our author of choice.
The Way It's Meant to be Played
NVIDIA debuted a new consumer awareness program at GDC, "NVIDIA: The Way It's Meant to be Played™." The program is being initiated to draw attention to those games that were created on and developed for NVIDIA graphics, letting gamers know that the very best gaming experience can be found on games powered by the GeForce GPU. Games played on NVIDIA hardware not only look better, but play better and allow gamers to experience the game the way the game developer intended.
For more, click here.
Coding Tip
Loosely render from front to back as much as possible. For example, you might render your characters first, then the terrain they stand on, and finally the sky. This reduces pixel shading computation time for architectures that perform pre-z-culling (GeForce3 and above) and saves memory bandwidth because of fewer color and z writes to the frame buffer! Don't worry about explicitly sorting each piece of geometry from front to back -- a loose sort is all that's needed.
