Has it really been two months?
by Alex Scarborough · 07/26/2006 (9:58 pm) · 13 comments
Wow, has it really been two months since I last posted a .plan? It sure doesn't feel like it. I've been extraordinarily busy as of late. On a completely unrelated note, have you seen Monster Island, Illumina, or Ninjas vs. Pirates? Those games are really looking awesome.
In other news, I've been doing a lot of shader writing lately, and I do mean a lot. I'm currently up to 61 shaders written in four different languages. It's been fun learning all of these different shading languages and working with and around their little quirks. I've actually developed a bit of a liking for writing ASM shaders. I guess it's just knowing exactly what the shader does and exactly how it is going to run, without making any guesses about how the compiler is going to interpret a line of code.
What's been most exciting for me is the level of scalability I've been able to achieve by spending the time to write vendor specific shaders. I coaxed a 50% FPS boost out of my shader water by rewriting the GLSL shader to detect if it is running on an nVidia card and if it is, use the half datatype and Cg standard library whenever possible. I also got parallax mapping working on Radeon 8500/GeForce 3 class hardware, which was rather exciting. It doesn't look quite as nice as it does on SM 2.0 hardware, due to internal precision issues (freaking 9-bit signed format), but it is parallax mapping, and it does look better than normal mapping.
I've also done a few other spiffy things which I intend to roll into TSE at some point. Thankfully, I don't have to learn another language to do it, as Cg and HLSL are pretty much identical. I could probably just drop in the Cg shaders and use them in TSE without any modifications.
Anyhow, a few notes.
1) TLK users with Intel macs: go here and check out the app and code please. I really would like to make it a resource, but I want to be sure that it actually works before I release it.
2) TGB Pro users: I recently submitted a resource that optimizes the TGB particle renderer. A friend of mine, Rob Sandbach, who is making chainWorks, said that he saw an immediate and noticeable FPS boost using it, so hopefully it will help out your project a bit too.
3) All: I created an OpenGL Q&A/FAQ thread. Go there and ask some questions! It's open to pretty much any OpenGL question, so if there's anything you've ever been curious about, now is the time.
And finally, a quick plea for help. Has anyone managed to get Cg working on Intel macs? 1.5 beta 2 is supposed to be universal, but on a friend's MacBook Pro it runs under rosetta.
Hmm... I guess it woud be cruel and unusual to post a .plan about graphics and not have any screenshots. Well, about a month ago, I messed around with some stylized rendering via post-processing to blow off some steam. Here are the results.
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In other news, I've been doing a lot of shader writing lately, and I do mean a lot. I'm currently up to 61 shaders written in four different languages. It's been fun learning all of these different shading languages and working with and around their little quirks. I've actually developed a bit of a liking for writing ASM shaders. I guess it's just knowing exactly what the shader does and exactly how it is going to run, without making any guesses about how the compiler is going to interpret a line of code.
What's been most exciting for me is the level of scalability I've been able to achieve by spending the time to write vendor specific shaders. I coaxed a 50% FPS boost out of my shader water by rewriting the GLSL shader to detect if it is running on an nVidia card and if it is, use the half datatype and Cg standard library whenever possible. I also got parallax mapping working on Radeon 8500/GeForce 3 class hardware, which was rather exciting. It doesn't look quite as nice as it does on SM 2.0 hardware, due to internal precision issues (freaking 9-bit signed format), but it is parallax mapping, and it does look better than normal mapping.
I've also done a few other spiffy things which I intend to roll into TSE at some point. Thankfully, I don't have to learn another language to do it, as Cg and HLSL are pretty much identical. I could probably just drop in the Cg shaders and use them in TSE without any modifications.
Anyhow, a few notes.
1) TLK users with Intel macs: go here and check out the app and code please. I really would like to make it a resource, but I want to be sure that it actually works before I release it.
2) TGB Pro users: I recently submitted a resource that optimizes the TGB particle renderer. A friend of mine, Rob Sandbach, who is making chainWorks, said that he saw an immediate and noticeable FPS boost using it, so hopefully it will help out your project a bit too.
3) All: I created an OpenGL Q&A/FAQ thread. Go there and ask some questions! It's open to pretty much any OpenGL question, so if there's anything you've ever been curious about, now is the time.
And finally, a quick plea for help. Has anyone managed to get Cg working on Intel macs? 1.5 beta 2 is supposed to be universal, but on a friend's MacBook Pro it runs under rosetta.
Hmm... I guess it woud be cruel and unusual to post a .plan about graphics and not have any screenshots. Well, about a month ago, I messed around with some stylized rendering via post-processing to blow off some steam. Here are the results.
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About the author
#2
07/26/2006 (10:19 pm)
Great job on all the shader stuff, you never cease to amaze me. I am looking forward to seeing what else you pull out of your bag of tricks.
#3
07/26/2006 (10:22 pm)
Awesome Awesome tech, its hard to believe some of the stuff youve managed to cram into tge :)
#4
Once again, Great work. I don't think I can thank you enough for the help you've given to me and the community as a whole, and I suspect that we'll be seeing more of your abilities as time goes on.
Hopefully the right people have or will recognize your skill and knowledge and make some wise decisions accordingly. Just my own feelings on the whole of your work.
Wish you the best in whatever lies ahead!
07/27/2006 (12:44 am)
Time flies Alex. You ought to see how fast it goes when you get over fourty. Once again, Great work. I don't think I can thank you enough for the help you've given to me and the community as a whole, and I suspect that we'll be seeing more of your abilities as time goes on.
Hopefully the right people have or will recognize your skill and knowledge and make some wise decisions accordingly. Just my own feelings on the whole of your work.
Wish you the best in whatever lies ahead!
#5
07/27/2006 (12:49 am)
Wow, that sepia looking post processing really adds a lot of dramatic effect. Makes even the stock TGE demo stuff look like something out of Shadow of the Colossus. Should take some pics of Tim's old packs with that shader on. 
#6
07/27/2006 (7:19 am)
Holy mackerel, those are some fantastic screen shots. I agree with Paul above, your sepia shots are very dramatic. The outdoor image of the castle knocked my socks off, and they're usually difficult to knock off. Just sayin'. 
#7
Thanks,
-Jeff Tunnell, GG
07/27/2006 (2:54 pm)
Wow. Please submit one of those screenies for the IOTD. This needs more exposure than a blog can give it.Thanks,
-Jeff Tunnell, GG
#8
Oh, and awesome stuff!
Edit: Yes, I mean GLSL, not CG.
07/27/2006 (4:01 pm)
I'm working with Jon J. on getting the CG stuff working on my Intel Mac...drop me an e-mail sometime and I'll give you an update.Oh, and awesome stuff!
Edit: Yes, I mean GLSL, not CG.
#9
I would guess that Alex doesn't want to bring that type of grief upon himself by posting an IOTD, although I can't speak for him. What I can say is that I've seen him hammered with requests on more than one forum for the GLSL resource, and his response has been:
@Alex
If you are ok with me promoting the great features that this has added to CN:MI, let me know. I intended on not promoting CN:MI until IGC this year, but after Jon's "Ninjas vs. Pirates" blog I figured the cat was out of the bag. If you think it will bring too many requests for the resource and problems for you, I'll continue to hold off any IOTD or my own blog that show off in detail the GLSL integration until at least this fall, i.e. IGC. Thanks again.
07/27/2006 (4:24 pm)
@JeffI would guess that Alex doesn't want to bring that type of grief upon himself by posting an IOTD, although I can't speak for him. What I can say is that I've seen him hammered with requests on more than one forum for the GLSL resource, and his response has been:
Quote:Status of GLSL port: It was finished back in early May, but GarageGames asked me not to release it.
Quote:I asked if they would be okay with my releasing a resource that had a GLSL port of this resource, a GLSL port of the interior bumpmap resource, and a GLSL version of DRL, and they prefered that I not release it.He has said that he can't elaborate on why. Perhaps we will find out it is the rumored integration of GLSL support in TSE, maybe because of the nearing completion of TSE, a future integration in TGE 1.5, or possibly nothing at all...but I do know that I have refrained from posting too many specifics of CN:MI -- since I was one of the few to get a drop of the code -- until it is a little clearer on what's going to finally happen with GLSL and TGE. I've gone out of my way in that regard to *NOT* promote how incredible this resource has made our game look so as not to bring any heat down upon Alex, since I didn't want to bring any problems to his doorstep. If he did post an IOTD all I can see is a whole new batch of "where's the resource" and "why didn't they want you to release it" and from there I'd imagine it would just go downhill.
@Alex
If you are ok with me promoting the great features that this has added to CN:MI, let me know. I intended on not promoting CN:MI until IGC this year, but after Jon's "Ninjas vs. Pirates" blog I figured the cat was out of the bag. If you think it will bring too many requests for the resource and problems for you, I'll continue to hold off any IOTD or my own blog that show off in detail the GLSL integration until at least this fall, i.e. IGC. Thanks again.
#10
07/27/2006 (5:30 pm)
Alex was in the office earlier today, and is working with us on some cool stuff. :) Very nice work so far!
#11
07/27/2006 (6:38 pm)
I was in the office when Jeff posted that comment. Probably 50 feet away from him at the time. Awesome timing
#12
07/27/2006 (7:27 pm)
Oh, and BTW April 27 to July 26 is three months...=P
#13
07/27/2006 (7:31 pm)
@Alan: ... See, this is why I do rendering now instead of collision. If I can't count to three I clearly have no hope of doing complex multivariable integration.
Torque 3D Owner Jesse (Midhir) Liles