Category Archives: DirectX

Otto Berkes – the last Xbox founder – leaves Microsoft

Way back when I was writing my OpenGL Book, I had the good fortune to run across some stupendous folks at Microsoft who were forthright and open and very very helpful to me, answering questions, implementation details, and generally reviewing … Continue reading

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WARP-Microsoft’s “fast” DirectX software rasterizer

It turns out that Microsoft did something very interesting Windows 7, something incredibly cool in fact! Windows 7 will contain something called WARP10, which stands for Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform.  This is, in essence, a software rasterizer for DirectX.  WARP10 … Continue reading

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DirectX 10.1 makes current hardware obsolete? Not!

Having just returned from Siggraph this year I was fielding some questions from some co-workers. “Didja hear that Microsoft announced DirectX 10.1?”, “Yeah”, “And that it makes all DX10.0 hardware obsolete?” – To which my witty reply was “huh?” I … Continue reading

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NVIDIA Releases Developer Tools

At the GDC, graphics chip maker NVIDIA announced they are releasing a bunch of updated and new tools. The tool upgrades are: FX Composer 2, PerfHUD 5, ShaderPerf 2. They are also releasing a new GPU-accelerated texture tool, plus a … Continue reading

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A plethora of shader tools

When it rains, it pours. We’re being treated to a slew of new shader writing tools. ATI updates their previously available RenderMonkey. NVIDIA jumps into the fold with FX Composer. And RTZen joins as well with a more production oriented … Continue reading

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DirectX Next

DirectX Next – Oh Pleeeze! The slides from Microsoft’s Meltdown 2003 are available here. I’ve not been a fan of DirectX’s piecewise distribution of shader technology – not so much for the hardware folks as for the consumers. When I’d … Continue reading

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ATI releases RenderMonkey 1.0

If you’re an artist leaning shader programming, a programmer interesting in having a shader testbed, or just interested in shader programming, ATI has released RenderMonkey 1.0. (To find out what RenderMonkey can do, look here.) According to ATI RenderMonkey has … Continue reading

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Intel, NVIDIA, ATI account for 80% of the GPU market for Q2 – 45% of that DX9 capable

XBitlabs reports some Mercury Research results for Q2 graphics market share from Q1. The big winner is Intel (even before they release the fricken Grantsdale chipset) increasing share from 27% to 32% – due to the integrated P4 chipsets. ATI … Continue reading

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