Last Updated: 03 / 10 / 2004

Headline Archive 2003

(Headlines are listed from most recent to least recent.)

Intel® VTune™ Performance Analyzer 7.1 Special Offer

The NVIDIA Developer Technology group has been using the Intel® VTune(tm) Performance Analyzer for years to optimize the performance of our drivers to achieve the highest performance for applications from the leading game vendors in the market. Because VTune is such an indispensable tool for game developers, we are happy to announce a time-limited special promotional offer to our visitors: a 10% discount off of any purchase of new Intel Software Development Products [promotional code: NV033104; promotion valid only by ordering through this e-mail]. For more product information, please visit the Intel Software Development Products Website.

NVIDIA Sponsored Session Lineup at GDC 2004

Our sponsored session lineup for GDC 2004 is now available. The goal of these sessions is to help you to incorporate new cutting-edge effects and techniques into your projects, as well as to give you an overview of the latest technologies.

Win a Gigapass for GDC 2004

Want to win a Gigapass for GDC 2004 (worth over $1,000, compliments of CMP Media) and help us to serve you better simultaneously? Simply fill out our two question survey and share your experiences with our development tools.

Developer Forums Now Available to Registered Developers

Registered developers now have a place to discuss issues and ideas with other developers and the NVIDIA Developer Technology team. We are excited to offer this new feature which provides the perfect forum to aid in answering your questions about programming techniques, developer tools, and NVIDIA products. Look for it now on http://nvdeveloper.nvidia.com.

GPU Gems Book Coming Soon

GPU Gems: Programming Techniques, Tips, and Tricks for Real-Time Graphics, published by Addison-Wesley, is a compilation of articles covering practical real-time graphics techniques. It focuses on the programmable graphics pipeline available in today’s graphics processing units and highlights techniques needed by developers creating advanced visual effects.

GPU Gems will hard bound, in full color throughout, approximately 700 pages, and will be available at GDC 2004 for a suggested retail price of $59.99.

Fast, Practical, and Robust Shadow Volumes

This paper, combining the efforts of Brown University and NVIDIA Corporation, presents a set of improvements to the popular stencil shadow volume technique. The paper builds on work previously published by Crow, Everitt and Kilgard, and Lengyel.

Using Vertex Buffer Objects

We've put up a whitepaper about OpenGL's Vertex Buffer Objects (VBOs), which allow you to transfer data efficiently at very high rates. The paper gives some background on VBOs and explains how to use them effectively.

Videos from Iron Developer 2003 Available

Video clips for our presentations from Iron Developer 2003 at CEDEC are now available. PDFs of the presentations are available in English, Japanese, and Korean.

XGDX 2003 Presentation Posted

Our presentation from XGDX 2003 is now available. This presentation discusses Modern Graphics Engine Design using a case study-based approach.

Learn About NVIDIA and PCI Express

NVIDIA is working hand-in-hand with Intel's workstation, desktop, and mobile engineering teams to help define, develop, and deploy PCI Express solutions. Learn more on our PCI Express page.

Hello, Cg! Paper Posted

We've posted a short whitepaper, sent in by Alex D'Angelo at Fusion Industries, that shows how to set up a simple Cg program. The example is complete with source code, written in the style of our Cg toolkit examples.

NVPerfHUD Updated

NVPerfHUD, our real-time performance monitoring tool, has been updated with new features and bug fixes. Version 45.28.1.4 is available to Registered Developers (to see it, simply log in and it will be on the list of recent updates).

Presentations Page Updated

Our presentations page has been updated with material from the recent Game Developers Conference Europe, as well as material from SIGGRAPH 2003 and NVIDIA-U SIGGRAPH 2003.

SIGGRAPH 2003 Cg Sessions Material

The slides and hands-on software we used at SIGGRAPH 2003 are now available. Material is available for each of the four tracks we covered.

Iron Developer 2003 at CEDEC

Japanese developers are encouraged to attend NVIDIA's third annual conference in Tokyo, "Iron Developer 2003," held this year on September 5, as a component of CEDEC 2003 at Meiji University. Engineers from NVIDIA's Developer Technology Group will focus on OpenGL and DirectX programming techniques covering advanced special effects, performance optimization, workflow and pipeline integration, as well as other topical issues for today's real-time developer.

Cg Plug-in for Maya 5.0 Now Available

We've released an updated version of the Cg Plug-in for Maya that supports Maya 5.0. This release includes full support for all features that were available in the previous release supporting Maya 4.5.

Cinematic Effects Video-Enhanced Presentation

In case you missed it at GDC 2003, we've put up a Video-Enhanced Presentation of Kevin Bjorke's "Cinematic Effects" talk. This presentation combines video and audio with slides, allowing you to conveniently jump from slide to slide and view demonstrations. We would love to get your feedback.

General FAQ Posted

We've put up a FAQ that answers many questions we commonly hear from developers. We hope you will find it helpful. You can also submit additional questions that you'd like to see answered.

Cg SIGGRAPH Paper Available

A SIGGRAPH 2003 paper entitled Cg: A system for programming graphics hardware in a C-like language (written by Bill Mark, Steve Glanville, Kurt Akeley, and Mark Kilgard) is now available. This systems paper discusses the language's design and implementation.

Developer Survey

To help serve you better, we would like to periodically ask for your input to help us focus our efforts on the areas that are of most interest and relevance to you and your work.

If you have a few moments, please visit our survey page, where you can answer five short questions to help choose the topics and structure for the hands-on sessions we will be giving at SIGGRAPH 2003.

Maya Cg Plug-in Updated

The Maya Cg Plug-in has been updated. The latest build fixes some mipmap generation issues and cube map flipping.

Cg Labs and Cg Tutorial Linux Builds Released

We are pleased to release Linux builds of both the Cg Labs and the software that accompanies The Cg Tutorial book.

Cg Labs Updated

The Cg Labs have been updated with new features and bug fixes, as well as a new "Generic Exercise" that allows you to easily experiment with your own vertex and fragment code.

Software for The Cg Tutorial Updated

The software that accompanies The Cg Tutorial book has been updated with new features (such as saving and loading configurations) as well as bug fixes.

Maya 4.5 Cg Plug-in Update

The Alias|Wavefront Maya 4.5 Cg Plug-in has been updated with a new feature that allows file references to be kept as relative paths from the project path. This allows greater ease of use when moving Maya content from one machine to another. Full source code is also bundled with the package.

CgFX Viewer and 3ds max Cg Plug-in Update

The discreet 3ds max Cg Plug-in and the standalone CgFX Viewer have both been updated with new features, such as scripting support, and also a heavy focus on bug fixes and stability. More importantly, full source code is available to these key tools giving developers a clear, comprehensive example of how to integrate support for .fx files in their pipeline. Please see the Readme.txt file in the installers for more detail.

OpenEXR 1.0.5 Released

Industrial Light & Magic has released version 1.0.5 of their OpenEXR software. OpenEXR is a high dynamic-range (HDR) image file format developed by ILM, and is fully compatible with Cg's 16-bit half data type.

The new release includes a hardware accelerated version of the "exrdisplay" application that uses a Cg shader to implement the full display pipeline. This allows users with GeForce FX or Quadro FX hardware to interactively change controls for exposure, defogging and gamma correction and see the results in real time.

For more information, please check out http://www.openexr.com/.
Source code is available at http://savannah.nongnu.org/files/?group=openexr.

Advanced GPU Programming Techniques

Following the initial success of The Cg Tutorial: The Definitive Guide to Programmable Real-Time Graphics, we are planning a contribution-based book that will focus on practical techniques for GPUs. This second book will be published by Addison-Wesley just as the first one was. If you would like to participate, please read the Call for Participation.

NVSDK CDs Available from MoveDigital

Want to feel the power of the NVSDK 6.0, literally? For those of you who prefer to have a physical CD of the NVSDK 6.0, and didn't get a chance to grab one at GDC, MoveDigital will ship one out to you for a nominal delivery fee. Please note that our primary distribution will remain through the Web, and all content on the CD is available for free through http://developer.nvidia.com. This is intended as a convenient option for people around the world without reasonably priced high-speed access.

To order CDs, please click here.

GDC 2003 Presentations Posted

Our presentations from GDC 2003 are now available online in both PDF and PPT formats.

Cg Toolkit Release 1.1 Now Available

The latest version of our Cg Toolkit is now available for download. This version includes additional optimizations, CgFX beta support, and fixes for bugs in Release 1.0 (December 2002).

Cg Plugins for 3ds max 5.1 and Maya 4.5 and CgFX Viewer Updated

The updated CgFX viewer is available here. In addition, the Cg plugins have been revised and improved. The latest versions take advantage of state-of-the-art shading technologies to allow developers to preview in-game effects live while building characters and game levels. The plugins are available here.

Japanese Translation of the Cg User's Manual Available

A Japanese version of the Cg User's Manual from Release 1.0 (December 2002) is now available.

The Cg Tutorial Now Available

The Cg Tutorial: The Definitive Guide to Programmable Real-Time Graphics is now available! For purchasing information, sample material, and more, please visit the book's Web site.

Newsletter Sign-up

We have now opened up our Developer Newsletter audience to include all interested developers. Click here to register so that you can be among the thousands of others who receive the newsletter. The newsletters are mailed out via e-mail approximately once a month, and contain all the latest news for developers (including developer events, software, Web site updates, and programming tips, among others). The sign-up also gives you the opportunity to influence the content of future newsletters.

Dawn To Dusk Developer Conference

In London on February 11-12, we'll be holding our Dawn to Dusk event, which will give developers a chance to learn more about taking full advantage of the GeForce FX, Cg, and CgFX. More information about the event, as well as registration information, is available here.

NVIDIA Supports ILM's OpenEXR Standard

A cornerstone of NVIDIA's effort in film production is to work with industry leaders such as Industrial Light & Magic to develop effective standards that will ensure continued innovation in the field. One of our most recent initiatives has been to collaborate with ILM on the OpenEXR specification (which was recently released to the open-source community) to ensure that it would be compatible with NVIDIA's Quadro FX and GeForce FX GPUs. OpenEXR is a high-precision, 16-bit, floating-point file format currently used in production on many high-profile films such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Men in Black II, Gangs of New York, and Signs. Learn more about OpenEXR at www.openexr.net.

GDC 2003 Coming Soon

NVIDIA is proud to support the Game Developer Conference again this year, and we hope you are all able to come to the following tutorials and lectures we're hosting, involved with, or consider particularly useful. As always, don't forget to stop by our booth (same spot as last year), and check out the latest tools and technology while meeting the developer relations/developer support team. To view the complete list of talks and tutorials that we'll be involved in, please visit this page.

NVIDIA Cg Compiler Officially Released with Full Support for DirectX 9 and OpenGL ARB extensions

Available now, the first official non-beta release of the NVIDIA Cg Compiler coincides with the release of DirectX 9.0 and the recent ratification of the OpenGL ARB fragment program extension. Fully leveraging the programmability of the GeForce FX GPU in both APIs, the compiler now adds further optimization and cross-platform capability for developers creating advanced visual effects for today's programmable GPUs from NVIDIA and other vendors. By incorporating feedback from developers, following the beta release last June, and working closely with Microsoft's DirectX HLSL development team, the compiler has made considerable advances to aid the creation of cinematic-caliber shader effects. Fully compatible with HLSL, and providing a suite of complementary tools, including plug-ins for artists (Maya 4.5, 3ds max 5, XSI 3.0), DirectX and OpenGL runtimes, comprehensive documentation and hundreds of shader examples, the latest NVIDIA Cg Toolkit is designed to be your one-stop solution for shader development. Included in the toolkit:

Cg Compiler Release 1.0
Enhanced Cg Runtime Libraries (Beta users must see the beta-to-release Cg runtime transition document)
Cg Browser 5.0
Updated documentation for all components

Note: 3ds max, Maya and XSI Cg implementations are not included in this download, but are available separately.

Cg Toolkit
Cg runtime transition guide

NVIDIA Cg Compiler Paves the Way for Cinematic Computing
NVIDIA Primed for Microsoft DirectX 9.0

Cg Plug-in for Maya 4.5 Now Available!

NVIDIA and Alias|Wavefront today announced the availability of a Cg plug-in that integrates advanced real-time shaders into Maya 4.5. First shown at Siggraph in July 2002, NVIDIA co-developed the Maya Cg plug-in for Windows with Alias|Wavefront to allow Maya 4.5 users to take shaders created for both OpenGL and DirectX-based platforms, such as PCs or Microsoft Xbox, and view them in Maya's OpenGL viewport. The cross-API capability of the Cg language specification is a breakthrough for development teams targeting content creation for multiple platforms by enabling simultaneous work in a WYSIWIG manner in OpenGL applications, while delivering content for DirectX platforms. The Maya Cg Plug-in supports the CgFX file format (.fx) and automatically provides intuitive interface controls and semantics to users and developers alike for editing shader effects in real-time. Since the CgFX format also supports both DirectX and OpenGL, developers may encapsulate a series of fallback techniques for rendering any effect. CgFX files are text-based and describe the complete render state for a particular effect -- multiple passes, texture states, and any number of individual vertex and pixel shaders may be defined to create a complete appearance or effect.

PRESS RELEASE
DOWNLOAD: Maya Cg Plug-in

Discreet and NVIDIA Develop CgFX Plug-in for 3ds max 5

Now available, the new 3ds max CgFX Plug-in allows artists to author and visualize content in 3ds max 5 using advanced hardware rendering and the Cg high level language. Accessible from the Viewport Manager located within the 3ds max Material Editor, DirectX users gain a custom, intuitive GUI featuring real-time effects with sliders and other artist-friendly interfaces. Existing shaders can be easily edited in the CgFX file directly using Visual Studio .NET or the animation artist’s favorite editor. New CgFX shaders downloaded from the Web can be loaded right into the CgFX shader palette. CgFX shaders also follow the standard set by Microsoft’s latest D3DX Effect .fx file format, and are fully compatible with Microsoft’s HLSL.

Also available today, the CgFX Viewer is a standalone application that serves as a comprehensive example of Cg integration for OpenGL and DirectX developers. The CgFX Viewer serves as a shader prototyping and editing environment that can load CgFX content exported from 3ds max. NVIDIA created the CgFX Viewer to approximate a typical game development pipeline and to provide source-code to developers to speed their development cycle.

3ds max CgFX Plug-in
CgFX Runtime (beta)
CgFX Viewer

PRESS RELEASE

SOFTIMAGE®|XSI® v.3.0 Integrates Cg

The recently released SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.3.0 environment offers seamless integration of Cg providing artists and programmers with a simplified process for authoring complex, highly realistic real-time digital content. SOFTIMAGE|XSI users can now drag and drop shader nodes from the XSI NetView directly into their scene’s Render Tree window, and use the same interface they’re familiar with to fine tune their shaders. Most importantly, this technology allows users of the SOFTIMAGE|XSI software to visualize content from within the application as it will appear in real-time in their interactive applications. More info on Cg in XSI 3.0

PRESS RELEASE