Now that the 3.2 specification is out, the API seems to be headed in the right direction but I fear that it’s just too little too late. Whereas OpenGL 3.2 seems to have targeted D3D 10 feverishly, Microsoft was already working on a new iteration of Direct3D in the background. Direct3D 11 once again leaves OpenGL to play catch-up, which they will, but likely too late.

OpenGL has one thing going for it that Direct3D doesn’t: cross-platform compatibility. If you really have to develop for multiple platforms, use OpenGL. If you just develop for Windows/360, use Direct3D. It almost seems as if we’re at that great “games versus industrial application” API divide again. Any momentum that OpenGL might have gained with 2.1, it has lost with its release of 3.0.

Here’s a great article by Tom’s Hardware explaining the issues better than I ever could.

Oh and a happy new year, by the way…

The attached screenshot is a bit underwhelming but maybe we’ll see some impressive examples soon. In any case, if the demo is at the IDF now, the public release couldn’t be far off.

They’ve posted a shipload of information over the last couple of months, so if you’re like me and had no idea this existed, you’ll have quite some reading to catch up to. It’s mostly about Windows 7 and the new graphics APIs (Direct2D, DirectWrite, etc.) but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Yeah, I don’t have the DX11 logo yet…

This release contains the first official release of Direct3D 11 (RTM), which was previously only a technical preview. According to the release notes, this version of Direct3D 11 will only work on the RTM version of Windows 7, not on the RC and Beta versions. So I guess only vendors and MSDN subscribers will be able to develop software until Windows 7 hits the retail market.

There’s also the issue of pure Direct3D 11 hardware not being sold yet but that should be right around the corner if the SDK is here.

It simply seems like the same system performs better with Windows 7, it’s definitely not simply a Vista update/Service Pack. And I’m happy to report that Fallout 3 (for the players) works OK on Windows 7 although there is the occasional crash and Alt-Tabbing is out of the question it seems.

Another very good thing thing I’ve noticed is the lack of UAC pop-ups, the only ones I’ve seen are when I try to run downloaded software – which is the same as in Windows XP.

Maybe in the long run some quirks will show up but for now I’m a happy camper indeed.

From Sunbiz.org

Effective July 1, 2009, the intention to register a fictitious name must be advertised at least once in a newspaper in the county in which the principal place of business will be located. Contact your newspaper for advertising information.

Apparently, in California business owners already had to do this but it’s new in Florida. How would one go about advertising the intent?

People of Palm Beach County, ScammingBastards Inc will henceforth use the name TrustUs Inc to scam you instead.

…

Although I’ve been disappointed with Vista’s gaming performance, everything else has been smooth sailing. In fact a bunch of features that are apparently introduced in Windows 7 (Start Search), were already available in Vista.

Anyway, I’ll soon find out if the Windows 7 talk is all hype or if there’s some truth to the claims I’ve been hearing.

I stopped playing World of Warcraft two days before the 10 day trial was over, it just doesn’t have that holding grab after all. I guess for me this is due to the fact that the game is from 2004 and it just doesn’t hold together that well over such a long period. Also, the pay-to-play scheme isn’t doing it for me.

Still, the game itself, disregarding the graphics, is good if you like these type of games and have the time for it. For me, it’s back to Fallout 3 since some very nice DLC has been released.

It’s been hard for me to convince anybody to watch Tron because of its status in geek culture. Regardless of this, if you enjoyed War Games, The Manhattan Project or Weird Science for that matter, Tron will kick their asses².

Here’s a link to an article published in Dr. Dobbs Journal by C++’s creator Bjarne Stroustrup explaining why (page 3).

I don’t think anyone is really surprised with the delay as the new standard would lift C++ up to a more modern level in order compete with contemporary programming languages, thereby implementing much addendum. The list of new features and STL additions is certainly impressive and when C++0x, er, C++1x is released, we’ll probably all need to brush up on our C++ skills.

Naturally, the demise of one habit fuels another; in my case gaming. If I can’t work on computer graphics, might as well enjoy them.

So in the last 2 months I have been playing some games. Firstly, I finished Half-Life for the second time, finished Half-Life 2 for the second time, after which I wanted a bigger blast from the past and blew the dust of my Wing Commander collection.

After finishing Wing Commander III, IV, and Prophecy, I needed something new.

So I gave in.

I have been avoiding playing World of Warcraft for a while now because of the stereotyping, subscription based game-play and my disappointment in Warcraft III (big fan of I and II).

But last night I downloaded the 10 day free trial and gave it a shot. Why not, right? I have to say that I am very pleasantly surprised. This game had me hooked in 20 to 30 minutes (after figuring out the controls).

After my wife (who felt the same way as I did initially) saw the game and the game-play, she also downloaded the trial and started getting hooked.

I’m finishing the 10 days for free and after that, I’ll most probably purchase the game/subscription for my wife and myself.

Now, let’s hope those stereotypes don’t come true…

This movie is absolutely nothing like anything in the Star Trek franchise which, in my humble opinion, is a good and refreshing idea. The story isn’t anything that will blow your mind but none of the Trek movies have had an original storyline, you have to admit that.

The only thing that irked me about the movie was that it didn’t quite feel like a Trek movie at first but that’s probably because I wasn’t familiar with these characters from any Star Trek series. It was a bit weird connecting the new characters’ faces to the old familiar names they have been given but after about 30 minutes into the film, everything seemed natural.

If you’re an old Trekkie and haven’t watched this movie because it’s not a TOS movie, just go see it already, you’ll be blown away by the guy who plays Bones. The franchise is being continued, thank God, just not in a very strict TOS/Roddenberry way.

Go ahead and read the story or the section on Wikipedia about this.

Crazy sh*t, agreed? Now scientists are using these flies as a pest control agent in several southern states which is where the creepiness comes in. What if the fly population booms and runs out of fire ants? Here’s a hint:

[the fly] is omnivorous. It has been reared from decaying vegetation, shoe polish, paint emulsions, human cadavers pickled in formalin, and even lung tissue from living people.

Does that mean that there’s a chance that we’ll become zombies? Keep your fingers crossed for the next mutation of this species and we’ll meet eachother in Ravenholm.

While the compiler is freely download-able from several websites labeled as an “Antique”, it’s really not a great tool to start programming with on modern systems. If you really (really) want to use Turbo C, buy an old 286 and go at it but don’t use your Intel Core i7. Here’s why. PS, this also applies to Turbo C++

1. The compiler is 20 years old, it won’t support the current C99 standard so many things you might have learned, you now have to unlearn in order to get the program working.

2. Turbo C is an MS-DOS compiler, chances are if you are learning C now, you have never used DOS in your life; there’s no reason to go back, nostalgia doesn’t apply to DOS. Furthermore, Windows does not support DOS programs from the 80’s, so you would have to emulate DOS in order to get your programs working properly.

3. There are many free compilers available that are 100% compatible with today’s hardware and not bound by any limitations. Even if your Turbo C compiler is 32 bit compatible, it’s not a great match for your 64 bit CPU and Operating System.

4. You’re stuck on the command line interface with no way out. Even if you make the best command line program for DOS, nobody besides yourself will ever want to use it. Converting your program to Win32 requires a new compiler that will yell at you for using coding practices from 1989 and break your program.

In other words, if the following code compiles without warning, you know you need another compiler.

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
    printf("Hello, World!");
}

Interestingly, my postscript got answered, Intel has posted (a preview) of Tom Forsyth’s talk on Larrabee’s SIMD extensions, the full version should come online in one month according to the site.

As always with Intel (and many others), you have to read through the marketing crud and filter out the core.

Once per week or so I browse a local Barnes and Noble hoping to catch a book I haven’t seen before. It rarely happens since their inventory is very stagnant, but still. A month or two ago I accidentally browsed the Graphics/Web section and found “Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 10″ by Frank D. Luna.

The title, publisher (Wordware) and cover were kind of off-putting so I almost didn’t buy it. But I’m glad I did since, in my case, it has become my number one DX10 reference. It’s compact, concise, always around my desk and well written so give it a shot if you have 30 bucks or so to spare.

Click here to read the PDF, scroll down to page eight (8)

Larrabee will support a rasterization pipeline as well as raytracing but Forsyth mentions raytracing to be more of a technical feature than a mainstream implementation. Regardless of this, for graphics programmers this should be good as there will finally be a piece of hardware that actually supports realtime raytracing.

Direct3D as well as OpenGL will be supported in addition to the much anticipated programmable route, either through C++ or pure assembly, which should open up the card for people interested in parallel computing.

Sadly there’s no definitive answer from Forsyth on how many cores Larrabee will actually contain. I guess we’ll have to wait for that a bit longer.

PS, if anyone is at GDC listening to Abrash and Forsyth tomorrow, let me know what you got from it.

I have been extremely skeptical about OpenGL 3.0 since it was more like an OpenGL 2.2 and did not implement any of the promised object oriented features that competing APIs like Direct3D implement. Thankfully, this release of OpenGL 3.1 seems to be better at first glance as it not only deprecates but removes the old functionality which has been in the way for so long.

It looks like Khronos has heard and listened to its outraged end-users and finally created a better specification. At least, upon first glance, that’s what it looks like.

With the release of OpenGL 3.1 also comes a new version of GLSL, version 1.40. Most excitingly, NVIDIA has released OpenGL 3.1 drivers immediately after the release of GL, showing that they’re way ahead in the game already (as opposed to AMD or Intel).

It is amazing to me that no major outlets such as Slashdot have picked up this this story and one has to find out about 3.1 by accident or RSS feeds.

Also, there seems to be some interesting stuff bundled with this version of the SDK, here’s my take on the important stuff:

• Technical Previews
  • Direct2D
  • DirectWrite
  • DXGI 1.1
• PIX works on the Windows 7 beta
• Several updated samples

Check out the details at the link posted above. Also, it doesn’t look like the online MSDN library docs have been updated yet but usually that happens pretty quickly.

My guess would be that with the release date of Windows 7 inching closer, the development for DirectX 11 has to be completed soon. Of course this is 100% speculation.

If anyone has a clue, let me know.