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Last Updated:
10
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12
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2007
Developer Newsletter: Issue #23
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Game Developer Magazine Front Line Award Nominations
 Game Developer Magazine has selected several NVIDIA products as finalists for the prestigious Front Line Awards. These awards recognize products that enable faster and more efficient game development, advancing the state of the art.
The finalists are:
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 FX Composer 1.6 Now Available
FX Composer 1.6 supports the following new features:
- Shader Model 3.0 support
- Compatible with Microsoft DirectX XNA preview pipeline
- Supports Microsoft DirectX Standard Semantics & Annotations Specification (DXSAS)
- FX Composer SDK examples show how you can import custom file formats, create automatation scripts, and more
- ShaderPerf updates supporting vertex shader analysis and GeForce 6 Series GPUs
Starting with this release, we're shipping only a few dozen sample
shaders with FX Composer. This makes the installer download significantly
smaller (~60MB). There are hundreds more in the NVIDIA SDK.
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The Scoop on the Gelato Developer Program
 Did you know that Gelato (NVIDIA’s software renderer that uses the GPU to accelerate high-quality, final-frame rendering) has its own developer program? The program is aimed at developers looking to extend Gelato’s functionality through the use of plug-ins or add-on tools or those looking to integrate their own products with Gelato for use in digital image production pipelines.
So far, third party developers have created several key add-ons for Gelato. There is a plug-in that reads RenderMan RIB scene files and allows Gelato to render them and a utility that translates RenderMan shaders into Gelato shaders. Winnipeg film studio Frantic Films has even created “Amaretto,” a plug-in for Discreet’s 3ds max that allows 3ds max users to choose Gelato as a renderer. This complements the “Mango” plug-in that NVIDIA ships with Gelato that performs the same function for Alias’s Maya software.
Gelato is aimed at the film and television markets, but can be used anywhere that high-quality, final-frame images are required. Information on the Gelato developer program is available at http://film.nvidia.com/page/gelato_developers.html.
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NVIDIA Sponsors Khronos Group OpenGL ES Coding Challenge
 The OpenGL ES 1.1 Coding Challenge is an opportunity for developers targeting mobile phones, handheld platforms, and embedded devices to compete for valuable prizes and receive public recognition of their talents. NVIDIA is a sponsor of the event, and over $100,000 in prizes are up for grabs including a GeForce 6800 GT. Multiple winners will be selected from each of four project categories:
- Visual FX Demos
- Games
- Educational Demos/Tutorials
- Linux Entries
In addition to the prizes for the winning entries, all Challenge participants will enjoy the benefits of global marketing efforts. Entries from the contest may also be used as the basis for an open source library of sample code and applications for hardware accelerated OpenGL ES games, demos and screensavers. The contest runs until Feb 15, 2005 and multiple entries per participant will be accepted. Check out the event home page and FAQ for details.
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Become a Registered Developer Today
Joining our Registered Developer program is free and gives you access to a number of benefits:
- Developer Forums
- Prerelease Tools
- Prerelease Drivers
- Bug Reporting
Joining is easy! Simply fill out one of applications below:
Please note that it may take a few weeks to receive a decision on your application, due to the large number of applicants.
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NVIDIA Graphics to Power Sony's Next-Generation Computer Entertainment System
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) and NVIDIA Corporation today announced that the companies have been collaborating on bringing advanced graphics technology and computer entertainment technology to SCEI's highly anticipated next-generation computer entertainment system. Both companies are jointly developing a custom graphics processing unit incorporating NVIDIA's next-generation GeForce and SCEI's system solutions for next-generation computer entertainment systems featuring the Cell processor.
>> Read Press Release
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NVIDIA and Intel Sign Broad Cross-License and Chipset License Agreements
NVIDIA Corporation and Intel Corporation recently announced that the companies have signed a broad, multi-year patent cross-license agreement spanning multiple product lines and product generations. Additionally, the companies signed a multi-year chipset agreement for NVIDIA to license Intel's front-side bus technology. This will enable NVIDIA to deliver the NVIDIA nForce platform technology, including SLI, on Intel-based systems.
>> Read Press Release
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GeForce 6200 with TurboCache
NVIDIA TurboCache is a new, patented hardware and software technology, which allows a GPU to render directly to system memory, instead of using local memory on the graphics card. NVIDIA TurboCache technology lowers on-board memory requirements, enabling system builders to deliver PCs with more feature-rich GPUs and offer their customers better graphics performance and advanced capabilities previously unattainable at value prices. In addition, the top-to-bottom Shader Model 3.0 support in the GeForce 6 Series family makes life easier for software developers.
>> Read Press Release
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Tip of the Month
Compile as many shaders as you can up front at load time. Doing dynamic compiles is bad, especially as shaders get longer and more complex. If you MUST do dynamic compiles try to space them out over many frames. Don't turn a corner to compile 150 new shaders and expect your frame rate to be steady -- it won't be. You "stream" in texture resources in anticipation of future need, look for similar strategies for your shader resources.
Learn more about efficient GPU programming by reading our GPU Programming Guide.
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Job Openings
NVIDIA's Developer Technology group is always looking for talented engineers and artists in the US, Japan, and Europe. See http://talent.nvidia.com for more general information, or our specific openings for: Handheld Devices Developer Technology Engineer, Developer Technology Engineer (Korea), and Developer Technology Engineer (USA).
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NVIDIA® Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) is the worldwide leader in graphics processors and media communications devices. For more information about NVIDIA please visit our website: www.nvidia.com.
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