Sun shines on Infinium? oh, and Phantom delayed, yet again…

Posted on October 28, 2004 by Ron
Infinium Labs and Sun Microsystems announced today that the companies have signed a collaboration deal to create a network and infrastructure that streams content for Infinium’s Phantom Game Service, direct to the living room.

“The Game Technologies Group’s understanding of online gaming, along with the broad-based expertise of the company in delivering content and services over networks, makes Sun an ideal partner for us. Sun’s expertise in delivering content from back-end systems to the user will now become one of our biggest assets. We can focus on offering consumers choice, convenience and ease of use with our PC and Java-based game service.” said Kevin Bachus, president, Infinium Labs.

(Yeah, Sun has always been a household name in gaming experience….)

“The Phantom Gaming Service model of delivering games to the home over broadband via a receiving device dovetails with Sun’s goal to use Java technology to allow people to play their favorite games without platform restrictions. We share Infinium’s vision of making games available over a network so they can play anywhere, anytime. Infinium’s mission is in line with Sun’s goal to leverage the network as a vehicle to make entertainment content, information and services ubiquitous for consumers, and we want to empower the company to make that happen in the video game arena. We’re glad Infinium’s direct to consumer model furthers our initiative to help developers using Java technology to distribute and sell their games to a wide audience.” said Chris Melissinos, chief gaming officer at Sun Microsystems.

(C’mon – did you even know Sun had a chief gaming officer?)

Sun is providing architecture design and back-end infrastructure, as well as managed hosting services, as part of the overall solution.

Originally slated for a November 18 release in North America, with a European launch following next year, Infinium Labs now plans to launch its Phantom Game Service “sometime” in 2005. As spun by Infinium president Kevin Bachus; the explanation goes like this;

“Retailers gear their fourth quarter holiday promotions around gift-giving opportunities, and they feel, as we do, that our service will not be bought primarily as a gift for someone else. It will more likely be a self-purchase.”

Which explains that since Christmas doesn’t matter, we’ll just delay anyway? Bachus denied that the delay indicated that Infinium is having trouble preparing the console and service for launch, saying that “we were on track to offer the Phantom Game Service later this year.” and “Many of our key marketing and retail partners, as well as publishers, have told us that they believe the best way to make the service successful is to hold off for now.”

Regardless of Infinium’s explanations, this is certainly going to create further criticism for the company – especially from the ranks of those who remain unconvinced that the device will ever launch at all.
Posted in Ex-Microsoft, Infinium, Too Weird | Leave a comment

OpenGL 2.0 launched!

Posted on September 7, 2004 by Ron
The OpenGL ARB has formally released the OpenGL 2.0 specification. This not only included things like the improved OpenGL Shading Language API’s, but a bunch of other new features as well. The highlights are;

Programmable Shading Interface

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The OpenGL Shading Language, and the related APIs to create, manage, and use programmable shaders written in the Shading Language, were promoted to core features in OpenGL 2.0. The complete list of features related to programmable shading includes:

Shader Objects: Shader objects provides mechanisms necessary to manage shader and program objects. Shader objects were promoted from the ARB shader objects extension.

Shader Programs: Vertex and fragment shader programs may be written in the high-level OpenGL Shading Language, replacing fixed-functionality vertex and fragment processing respectively. Vertex and fragment shader programs were promoted from the ARB vertex shader and ARB fragment shader extensions.

OpenGL Shading Language: The OpenGL Shading Language is a high-level, C-like language used to program the vertex and fragment pipelines. The Shading Language Specification defines the language proper, while OpenGL API features control how vertex and fragment programs interact with the fixed-function OpenGL pipeline and how applications manage those programs.
OpenGL 2.0 implementations must support at least revision 1.10 of the OpenGL Shading Language. Implementations may query the SHADING LANGUAGE VERSION string to determine the exact version of the language supported. The OpenGL Shading Language was promoted from the ARB shading language 100 extension (the shading language itself is specified in a companion document; due to the way it’s written, that document did not need to be changed as a consequence of promoting programmable shading to the OpenGL core).

Changes To Shader APIs:Small changes to the APIs for managing shader and program objects were made in the process of promoting the shader extensions to the OpenGL 2.0 core. These changes do not affect the functionality of the shader APIs, but include use of the existing uint core GL type rather than the new handleARB type introduced by the extensions, and changes in some function names, for example mapping the extension function CreateShaderObjectARB into the core function CreateShader.
Multiple Render Targets Programmable shaders may write different colors to multiple output color buffers in a single pass. Multiple render targets was promoted from the ARB draw buffers extension.
Non-Power-Of-Two Textures The restriction of textures to power-of-two dimensions has been relaxed for all texture targets, so that non-power-of-two textures may be specified without generating errors.
Point Sprites

 

 Point sprites replace point texture coordinates with texture coordinates interpolated across the point. This allows drawing points as customized textures, useful for particle systems. Point sprites were promoted from the ARB point sprite extension.
Two-Sided Stencil

 

 Separate stencil functionality may be defined for the front and back faces of primitives, improving performance of shadow volume and Constructive Solid Geometry rendering algorithms. Separate stencil was based on the the API of the ATI separate stencil extension, with additional state defined by the similar EXT stencil two side extension.

This brings OpenGL up to speed with DirectX 9, and since most of the folks on the ARB are video card manufacturers whom have to support DirectX as well, it’s in their interest to have as few differences as possible. Given OpenGL’s extension mechanism (which is rumored to be considered as a possible feature for DirectX 10), and the rapid development of the last few OpenGL versions, it’s obvious that the hardware folks don’t want Microsoft to dictate the way that 3D graphics are going to look in the future.

So…should you go for OpenGL or DirectX? Just listen to John Carmack from his Feb. 2003 .plan

Reasonable arguments can be made for and against the OpenGL or Direct-X style of API evolution. With vendor extensions, you get immediate access to new functionality, but then there is often a period of squabbling about exact feature support from different vendors before an industry standard settles down. With central planning, you can have “phasing problems” between hardware and software releases, and there is a real danger of bad decisions hampering the entire industry, but enforced commonality does make life easier for developers. Trying to keep boneheaded-ideas-that-will-haunt-us-for-years out of Direct-X is the primary reason I have been attending the Windows Graphics Summit for the past three years, even though I still code for OpenGL.
Posted in Graphics, Graphics API, OpenGL | Leave a comment

Acclaim goes under, files for Chapter 7

Posted on September 5, 2004 by Ron

Acclaim Entertainment filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in a filing with the US Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip, New York. 600 employees have lost their jobs and the fates of several in development games, including Juiced, The Red Star and 100 Bullets, as well as new entries in the “Worms” franchise, are currently up in the air. The company has also faced lawsuits from some of its top licensees, including ones from teen superstars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and biking legend Dave Mirra. At least one creditor was owed more than $20 million. Earlier this year, it restated three fiscal years of financial results to correct an accounting error. The company had been trying for months to get new financing. Negotiations with a proposed lender to replace the company’s former primary lender, GMAC Commercial Finance had terminated and the company’s credit facility with GMAC expired on Aug. 20 and was not extended. According to its annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company’s assets totaled $47.3 million and liabilities of $145.3 million, as of July 1. Shares of the Glen Cove, New York-based company, which was founded in 1987, peaked at more than $30 a share in late 1993 but last broke $5 in mid-2002 and have traded below $1 since last September. Over-the-counter Pink Sheets of Acclaim traded at around 2 cents on Thursday morning. RIP…..

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Phantom to go live Nov. 18

Posted on June 29, 2004 by Ron

Kevin Bachus shared the stage with Sun’s Scott McNealy at the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco to announce the;

“Phantom Gaming Service is slated to go live Thursday, Nov. 18, 2004. The Phantom Game Receiver will ship with the full Java 2 Standard Edition Runtime Environment and supporting game APIs. All Java technology-based games will be able to run on the Phantom out of the box.”

The console will is based on an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ and contains a 40GB hard drive, 256MB of memory TV output and broadband Internet feed. The graphics come courtesy of an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra ship. The box, which clearly amounts to little more than a low-end PC, will retail for $199, Infinium said. The Phantom Game Service costs $29.95 a month, and if you sign up for a 24-month period, you’ll get your Athlon XP box for free.

The first launch was supposed to be in Q1 2003. The second was supposed to be Q1, 2004.

Posted in Ex-Microsoft, Infinium, Too Weird | Leave a comment

Acclaim on the Ropes?

Posted on June 10, 2004 by Ron

The prospect of consolidation of the video game software sector took another step forward Friday, as Acclaim Entertainment warned that it may soon wind up in bankruptcy after shares hit a 52-week low of 25 cents a few days ago. “Acclaim shares remain a speculative investment until management demonstrates its ability to execute on its strategy of making fewer, higher quality games,” Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter wrote Friday. “We believe that the company has a respectable lineup of games planned for release in [fiscal 2005] , but due to continuing cash flow problems, its ability to deliver these games on time remains in question.” In its annual report filed Thursday and in an earnings release on Friday, the game maker reported that it is in default on some of its convertible notes and at least three of its licensing agreements are in dispute, in part because Acclaim’s partners claim it hasn’t been paying royalties on time. While Acclaim negotiated a $30 million line of credit in May, it is facing a cash crunch. At the end of fiscal year on March 31, the company had just $1.1 million in cash, compared to $41.2 million in short-term debt.

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Ex-Infinium Officer sues, case settled out of court

Posted on April 20, 2004 by Ron

Ex-Infinium Executive Vice President Terry Nagy is suing Infinium Labs as well as officers Timothy Roberts and Robert Shambro for fraud and breach of contract. Nagy started working for Infinium in 2002. He says his job was to acquire gaming content for the Phantom and that they used his reputation and experience in the industry to generate publicity and credibility for the system and to raise approximately $US 15M in venture capital – while promising him a big payoff in shares of company stock. Nagy says Infinium cancelled his email and cell telephone service in the fall of 2003 and stopped returning his calls. Infinium then merged into a shell company and a public market for its stock developed. Nagy claims Roberts and Shambro netted millions of shares of stock but he received nothing. He’s seeking the value of the stock the company owes him for his work. The case was later cancelled when Infinium offered to negotiate a settlement out of court, details unknown. The suit is dismissed without prejudice, meaning that the suit can still be filed at a later date.

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More Inifinium amusements

Posted on March 29, 2004 by Ron

Kyle Bennett, owner and mouthpiece for HardOCP.com, announced that HardOCP has filed a lawsuit against Infinium Labs in response to Infinium Lab’s demands to HardOCP demanding that the site retract an article published last September which profiled Infinium’s CEO Tim Roberts and delved into Roberts’ past business history and Infinium’s record to date in a highly unflattering manner This was supposed to force Infinium to bring the issue to a quick resolution. Infinium eventually filed its own lawsuit in response. Here a short synopsis from GameSpot. If you’d like to read the – rather scathing – article on Infiniums Labs CEO Tim Roberts that was posted on HardOCP the get it here. Ya gotta wonder at someone who had the phrases “Long before the Internet existed” and “where wizards stayed up late,” in his resume. Gack. OTOH, he did co-found Broadbrush Coatings, a full-service industrial, commercial and residential painting contractor specializing in new commercial exteriors, tenant finish contracts, high-quality wall covering and upper-end custom homes. 1999-2003. …amongst other things – like a surprising number of CEO/Director/etc. positions in the last eight years.

In short – rather that worry about the effect all this crap has on the E3 showing, Infinium is bothering with this and bringing a shitstorm of unwanted publicity on themselves. Not a good sign.

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A plethora of shader tools

Posted on March 25, 2004 by Ron

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 tool for shader writers. There are some other tools that are out there but they are generally student/hobbyist products and the support is somewhat iffy. Here’s a quick summary of each product.

RTzen™, Inc., a new company dedicated to empowering 3D artists, today announced it’s conducting the first public demonstration of its RT/shader editing tool at the Game Developer Conference (GDC) in numerous partner booths.* RT/shader, shipping later this month, is the industry’s first 3D editing tool with the capability to automatically generate high-level shading language code in real-time, leading to a dramatic reduction in development time and cost. Moreover, it enables more 3D graphic artists to leverage shaders to increase the realism and image quality of 3D digital content – like in games, product design and environment simulation. RT/shader will be on display in the ATI Technologies (booth#827) and NVIDIA Corporation (booth#808) booths and during Alias and Discreet technical seminars. If you get it at GDC the price is $US 1595. – regularly it’s $US 1995. Get more information here.

NVIDIA has released FX Composer. FX Composer enables developers to create high performance DirectX 9.0 HLSL shaders in an IDE with unique real-time preview and optimization features. FX Composer was designed with the goal of making shader development and optimization easier for programmers while providing an intuitive GUI for artists customizing shaders for a particular scene. FX Composer comes with dozens of sample projects, performance tutorials, and more than 120 sample shaders. You down load it here.

ATI has released RenderMonkey 1.5, and it’s the only tool out there that supports the OpenGL shader language GLSL. There have been a lot of usability improvements since the initial release. The interface has been redone and it’ll look familiar to those who use Microsoft’s Visual Studio. A lot of drag and drop, right-click properties menus, and much more attention to making writing shaders as effortless as possible. There’s a review of RenderMonkey in the April Game Developer magazine (which is distributed free at GDC). Download RenderMonkey here.

Summary: From conversations with Jeremy Hubbell at RT/Zen & the FX Composer group at NVIDIA and the RenderMonkey group at ATI about the capabilities of their products I can do a quick summary of the products. If RT/Shader has done a good job of integrating with Maya and 3dsMax so that it really is seamless integration and the price is well worth it. ATI and NVIDIA are seemingly squaring off against each other, intentionally or not, with very similar tools. They both are similar in outlook and design, but neither offers seamless integration with the usual tools. NVIDIA has done a nice job of predicting performance using GPU cycle count, register usage, utilization rating, and FPS but it requires a information of the target GPU – which currently exist only for NVIDIA’s products. ATI supports OpenGL shaders on GLSL capable ATI & 3DLabs, which pretty much decides that issue if you need to use GLSL. And NOBODY provides a real debugger in any of these tools. The closest is to use the DirectX 9 reference (i.e. software emulation) driver in Visual Studio.

Posted in DirectX, Graphics API, Miscellaneous, OpenGL | Leave a comment