OpenGL Headline News
G3D open source 3D engine C++ library supports OpenGL 2.0
Sep 29, 2004
G3D is a BSD open source 3D engine that supports real-time rendering, off-line rendering, back-end game server management of 3D worlds, and use of graphics hardware for general purpose computing. V6.04 adds support for OpenGL 2.0, a new manual, Visual Studio .NET support, depth textures, AABSPTree Frustum Culling, easy-to-use access to programmable hardware, and new demos including a network game infrastructure.
Category: Developers • Permalink
Nvidia GPU Jackpot October 21-22 for developers
Sep 29, 2004
The Nvidia GPU Jackpot event Oct 21-22 in Las Vegas is for content developers and artists. The programming track (limited to 80 attendees) includes: Performance and Features of GeForce 6 Series GPUs; Efficient Shadow Generation; Normal Map Compression & Quality; SLI (How to Take Advantage of Multiple GPUs) ; Advanced Performance Tools and Developer Tools and the NVIDIA SDK. The registration fee for the event is $80 and all attendees will receive a GeForce 6 Series GPU
Category: Developers • Permalink
OpenGL API-based audio visualization with iTunes
Sep 28, 2004
VizKit is an OpenGL API-based visual plug-in for iTunes. It is published as an open source, cross-platform (Mac/Windows) seedwork. The main features are: Unicode anti-aliased texture of the track title including custom font loading and CoverArt texture generation with QuickTime.
Category: Applications • Permalink
Free DAZ|Studio uses the OpenGL API for digital art scenes
Sep 28, 2004
DAZ|Studio is a free application that allows you to easily create beautiful digital art. You can use this software to load in people, animals, vehicles, buildings, props, and accessories to create digital scenes and includes pre-configured 3D scenes, complete with a poseable character, accessories and environments. Thee scenes can easily be manipulated including character poses, shape morphs, model textures, and lighting. It supports OpenGL API rendering and the 3Delight Renderman compliant renderer.
Category: Applications • Permalink
Smode Studio 1.2 “video jockey” application uses the OpenGL API for real-time rendering to music
Sep 23, 2004
Smode Studio uses the OpenGL API for real time rendering of visual compositions. It integrates 3D objects (mesh, curve and particle), video and still images and can be controlled via midi, keyboard or a sound analyzer module.
Category: Applications • Permalink
Pixie photorealistic renderer using the OpenGL API for rasterizing
Sep 23, 2004
Pixie is a photorealistic renderer for MacOS X, Windows, and Linux
that uses a RenderMan-like interface. Features include programmable shading, motion blur, depth of field, raytracing, scan-line rendering, area-light sources, occlusion culling, global illumination, and caustics. Pixie uses the OpenGL API as a rasterizer.
Category: Applications • Permalink
Fast correct soft shadows using OpenGL API with source
Sep 21, 2004
This classic shadow mapping approach to create correct soft shadows allows complex scenes to be shadowed realtime even on old hardware (83k triangles on GF4/4200 at 23fps). Includes source code. Implementation requires OpenGL 1.5 and nVidia GPU, GF3 or higher.
Category: Developers • Permalink
Creating Mac OS X native Open Inventor/Coin applications
Sep 21, 2004
Sc21 is used to integrate the OpenGL API-based Coin Open Inventor work-alike library, with the Mac OS X user interface. In contrast to the SoGui libraries normally used to create Open Inventor applications, which focus on cross-platform compatibility, the main design goal of Sc21 is to make the integration with Mac OS X as close and intuitive as possible. Sc21 is designed to be used with the Coin Open Inventor work-alike, but it should also work with SGI’s or TGS’s Open Inventor (although this has not be tested yet).
Category: Developers • Permalink
Modern dynamic shadowing techniques using the OpenGL API
Sep 21, 2004
The first demo shows how to implement omni-directional shadow mapping on hardware that supports Pixel Shaders 2.0 and float pixel buffers. The demo could have used a simple integer type PBuffer which is typically faster than the float type, but that would have killed the precision. (screenshot) The second demo generates shadow volumes entirely on the GPU via special meshes made of degenerated quads inserted at every occluder edge.
It takes advantage of Nvidia two side stencil buffer and ATI separate stencil to write the shadows in one pass.(screenshot). To benchmark follow this thread.
Category: Developers • Permalink
Virtual Hiker (pre-beta) uses Java and the OpenGL API to display 2D & 3D maps for hiking
Sep 21, 2004
Virtual Hiker is an OpenGL-API accelerated Java program that allows a user to easily and interactively use map data to plan hikes or explore new areas. It supports interactive 3D maps of the terrain rendered in real-time; the ability to trace trails across the terrain and get height verses distance profiles; and the ability to tile together adjacent maps to create seamless map areas. The new v0.0.2 adds an estimate and 2D/3D view of the offset from true north to what a magnetic compass would show, as well as quick 2D and 3D view cross referencing.
Category: Applications • Permalink

