Our GDC 2007 presentations are available for download:
NVIDIA FX Composer 2: A Comprehensive Shader Development Package [download] Slides (PDF) GPU Optimization with the Latest NVIDIA Performance Tools [download] Slides (PDF)
We are pleased to demonstrate the latest version of our NVIDIA Developer Toolkit at GDC 2007, complete with six all-new software products for developers:
FX Composer 2. Featuring DirectX and OpenGL support via HLSL, Cg, and COLLADA FX, as well as powerful pipeline integration features for real production environments.
GPU-Accelerated Texture Tools. Now more than 10x faster with GPU acceleration via CUDA, and support for DirectX 10 texture formats.
PerfHUD 5. Featuring powerful edit-and-continue for shaders and render states, customizable graphs, DirectX 10 and Vista support, and much more.
ShaderPerf 2. Support for vertex and pixel shader analysis as well as Release 100 drivers.
We are showing off all these tools at GDC in booth # 5134 and at our various sessions. The Shader Library, SDK 10, GPU-Accelerated Texture Tools, and ShaderPerf 2 are now available for download. Betas of FX Composer 2 and PerfKit 5 will be available soon after GDC.
NVIDIA has updated its collection
of OpenGL extension specifications. These updates include an unabridged
PDF collecting all NVIDIA-supported OpenGL extensions (2,097 pages) and
an abridged version (462 pages) with only the newest OpenGL extensions
for the latest GeForce 8 functionality.
These new extensions
for GeForce 8800 expose geometry shaders; constant buffers; texture
arrays; new compressed, integer, and packed texture formats; transform
feedback to stream out vertices into buffers; shadow cube maps;
programmable integer instructions; and more. Each PDF also contains a
table detailing which NVIDIA GPU architectures support which
extensions. Additionally, every specification is available in plain
text.
CSAA produces antialiased images that rival the quality of 8x or 16x MSAA, while introducing only a minimal performance hit over standard (typically 4x) MSAA. It works by introducing the concept of a new sample type: a sample that represents coverage. This differs from previous AA techniques where coverage was always inherently tied to another sample type. In supersampling for example, each sample represents shaded color, stored color/z/stencil, and coverage, which essentially amounts to rendering to an oversized buffer and downfiltering. MSAA reduces the shader overhead of this operation by decoupling shaded samples from stored color and coverage; this allows applications using antialiasing to operate with fewer shaded samples while maintaining the same quality color/z/stencil and coverage sampling. CSAA further optimizes this process by decoupling coverage from color/z/stencil, thus reducing bandwidth and storage costs.
To fully expose the hardware features of the GeForce 8 Series of GPUs significant new functionality has been added in the form of extensions to OpenGL 2.1 and the OpenGL Shading Language. This includes the addition of a third programmable processor, the geometry shader, full integer support in the OpenGL Shading Language, and the ability to tap into the GL pipeline right before rasterization and stream data into a buffer object. For more information please visit the following pages:
We are pleased to announce NVPerfKit 2.1, the latest version of our comprehensive suite of performance tools for debugging and profiling OpenGL and Direct3D software applications for Windows and, for the first time, Linux.
New in this release:
- Release 90 driver support - 32-bit and 64-bit Linux support (NVPerfSDK only) - 64-bit Windows support - Improved features in NVPerfHUD (including "take screenshot" [F10]) - Improved installer with automatic driver removal and installation
Also, don't forget to visit our brand-new NVPerfHUD screenshot gallery, which shows top game titles being analyzed by their developers using NVPerfHUD.
Real-time graphics is going to leap forward again. API are becoming more flexible than ever before allowing a new class of effects and improved developer tools increase performance and productivity on many platforms, including Linux. We invite you to attend the following tutorials:
• Next Generation Programmability in OpenGL • Physics on NVIDIA GPUs • State of the Art Cross Platform Shader Development • Next Generation Effects in DirectX10 • Optimize Your GPU with the Latest NVIDIA Performance Tools (including Linux Performance Tools)
At the end of each session a high-end NVIDIA graphics card will be given away. To participate, swipe your badge at the entrance and get a raffle ticket.
NVIDIA Engineers will demonstrate tools to improve shading quality and graphics performance on current projects. They will also talk about what you should absolutely know for your next Direct3D10 title. Do not miss these sessions at the Develop Conference held in Brighton, UK.
• Shaders: The Sky is the Limit. NVIDIA and Sony joint presentation (Thursday July 13th, from 11am - noon)
• Optimize Your GPU with the Latest NVIDIA Performance Tools (Thursday July 13th, from 1:30pm - 2:30pm)
• Next Generation Games with Direct3D10 (Thursday July 13th, from 3:00pm - 4:00pm)
We are proud to release NVPerfKit 2, a comprehensive suite of performance tools to help debug and profile OpenGL and Direct3D applications. NVPerfKit gives you access to low-level performance counters inside the driver and hardware counters inside the GPU itself. The counters can be used to determine exactly how your application is using the GPU, identify performance issues, and confirm that performance problems have been resolved.
A major new component in NVPerfKit 2 is NVPerfHUD 4. This latest version of our real-time performance analysis tool now features automated performance analysis, access to GPU performance counters, updated and improved performance graphs, and much more. In a recent survey, over 100 NVPerfHUD 4 users reported an average performance improvement of 34.8% by using NVPerfHUD 4 to tune their applications. These users also reported that NVPerfHUD 4 helped them find an average of 11 rendering bugs during development. (Results were obtained from individuals using a variety of system configurations and applications. Individual results may vary.)
NVPerfKit 2 consists of the following components:
Instrumented Driver
Interfaces with graphics API and GPU to provide performance counter data
Cg 1.5 Beta 2 went live today. In addition on new features provided by the Beta 1, it introduces support for Solaris, Universal (X86+PowerPC) binaries for Mac OS and general compatibility improvements. Code samples have also been added.
Cg 1.5 Beta 1 is available for download. This version of Cg features GLSL profiles for OpenGL and Shader Model 3 profiles for Direct3D. A procedural API for effect creation has also been added to support COLLADA. As always, this most recent version has been tuned for higher performance.
Our GDC Presentations are now available in Acrobat and PowerPoint formats. Visit our GDC 2006 Presentations page and start improving your applications today.
NVPerfSDK's Sample Application
Cg 1.5 Beta 2 went live today. In addition on new features provided by the Beta 1, it introduces support for Solaris, Universal (X86+PowerPC) binaries for Mac OS and general compatibility improvements. Code samples have also been added.
