Topics

41

3D-Tech News Around The Web / 2Geom: easy C++ 2D graphics library

« on: November 12, 2018, 05:25:26 PM »

What is this?
2Geom is a C++ 2D geometry library geared towards robust processing of computational geometry data associated with vector graphics. The primary design consideration is ease of use and clarity. It is dual-licensed under LGPL 2.1 and MPL 1.1.

The library is descended from a set of geometric routines present in Inkscape, a vector graphics editor based around the Scalable Vector Graphics format, the most widespread vector graphics interchange format on the Web and a W3C Recommendation. Due to this legacy, not all parts of the API form a coherent whole (yet).

Rendering is outside the scope of this library, and it is assumed something like libcairo or similar is employed for this. 2geom concentrates on higher level algorithms and geometric computations.

Features List
    C++
    Functional programming style.
    Points
    Efficient affine transformations
    Rectangles
    Convex Hulls
    Bounded error
    General purpose paths:
        Exact elliptical arcs
        Area
        Centroid and bending moments
    Path Locations:
        Determination of special spots (e.g. maximum curvature)
        Splitting
        Point, tangent, curvature at location
        Efficient arc length and inverse arc length
    Path algebra:
        Computations such as offset curves can be written with their mathematical definition and still get a bounded error,
        efficient curve. (preliminary trials indicate offset done this way out performs the method used in Inkscape)
    Arbitrary distortion (with bounded error):
        Mesh distorts
        Computational distorts such as the GIMP's 'vortex' plugin
        3d mapping (perspective, flag, sphere)
    Exact boolean ops (elliptic arcs remain elliptic arcs)
    Efficient 2d database
    Implicit function plotting
    NURBs input and output
    Tunable path simplification
    PDoF constraint system for CAD/CAGD

Links:
- Graphics Math Library 2geom's First Release Available For Use Beyond Inkscape
- 2Geom @ github
- Inkscape homepage

42

Geeks3D's GPU Tools / GPU Caps Viewer 1.40.0 released

« on: November 07, 2018, 12:13:34 PM »

A new version of GPU Caps Viewer is available with new features and lot of bug fixes.

More information and download links:

https://www.geeks3d.com/20181107/gpu-caps-viewer-1-40-0-released/

43

Geeks3D's GPU Tools / GPU Shark 0.12.0.0 released

« on: November 07, 2018, 09:58:29 AM »

A new update of GPU Shark is available.

Download and release notes:
https://www.geeks3d.com/20181107/gpu-shark-0-12-0-released/

44

3D-Tech News Around The Web / appleseed 2.0.0-beta released

« on: November 07, 2018, 09:56:29 AM »

appleseed is an open source, physically-based global illumination rendering engine primarily designed for animation and visual effects. It provides individuals and small studios with a complete, reliable, fully open rendering package built with modern technologies.

Links:
- https://appleseedhq.net/#latest-news
- https://github.com/appleseedhq/appleseed/releases/tag/2.0.0-beta
- https://appleseedhq.net/download.html
- https://github.com/appleseedhq/appleseed

45

3D-Tech News Around The Web / DXRPathTracer: A simple path tracer implemented using DirectX Ray Tracing (DXR)

« on: October 30, 2018, 06:11:08 PM »

This project is a very basic unidirectional path tracer that I wrote using DirectX Raytracing, also known as DXR. I mostly did this to learn the new API, and also for a bit of fun. Therefore you shouldn't take this as an example of the best or most performant way to implement a path tracer on the GPU: I mostly did whatever was fastest and/or easiest to implement! However it could be useful for other people looking for samples that are bit more complex than what's currently offered in the offical DirectX sample repo, or for people who want to start hacking on something and don't want to do all of the boring work themselves. Either way, have fun!

Link: https://github.com/TheRealMJP/DXRPathTracer

46

3D-Tech News Around The Web / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti are dying!

« on: October 30, 2018, 06:09:25 PM »

Seriously?

- RTX 2080Ti MASSIVELY DIE!

- 2080 Ti Fe - Artifacts + Crash (BSOD)

- RIP RTX 2080 Ti @ Reddit


- Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti Cards Have A Serious Problem -- They Keep Dying

I just finished reading a surprisingly large quantity of forum posts and complaints -- at least the ones I'm aware of -- from owners of Nvidia's new flagship RTX graphics cards. They all can be condensed into a single broad statement: the RTX 2080 Ti sure seems to be dying on a lot of people, resulting in some seriously unhappy early adopters. Literally hundreds of them. And this card just launched one month ago.

- Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cards are reportedly failing in high numbers

Founders Edition cards seem to be the most bork-prone

SO YOU'VE DROPPED NORTH OF A GRAND on Nvidia's RTX 2080 Ti; not only do you expect all the graphics, but you also don't expect it to fail.

But rather worryingly, Nvidia's flagship GPU is failing more often than it should, according to Digital Trends, which reported graphical artefacts and instabilities right after installing the graphics card.

And elsewhere, rather high numbers of other RTX 2080 Ti users are flagging that their cards are failing very quickly.

The 'Founders Edition' RTX 2080 Ti appears to be the card that's most likely to fail, with reports that even replacements from manufacturers are also borking.

These cards are also failing despite the fact that they are locked down and don't allow users to carry out manual overclocking or change the voltage, thereby meaning users can go around borking the high-end GPU.

Nvidia told us it's looking into the issue, but seemed to downplay the borkage somewhat: "We are working with users individually, but we are not seeing any broader issues."

It would look like the issue is perhaps a fault in the early production of the RTX 2080 Ti, and something Nvidia should be able to iron out, though it'll probably cost the company a pretty penny.

- Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards are dying in alarming numbers

Concerns are mounting over the failure rate of Nvidia’s RTX 2080 Ti graphics card, with increasing numbers of reports of dead and dying cards from early adopters. Some display issues involve artifacting and instability immediately after being installed, while others begin to show signs of degradation after a few days, despite a lack of manual overclocking or voltage manipulation.

47

3D-Tech News Around The Web / Effectively Integrating RTX Ray Tracing into a Real-Time Rendering Engine

« on: October 29, 2018, 10:19:37 PM »

RTX is NVIDIA’s new platform for hybrid rendering, allowing the combination of rasterization and compute-based techniques with hardware-accelerated ray tracing and deep learning. It has already been adopted in a number of games and engines. Based on those experiences, this blog aims to give the reader an insight into how RTX ray tracing is best integrated into real-time applications today. This blog assumes that the reader is familiar with the Microsoft DXR API at a basic level.

While ray tracing can produce much more realistic imagery than rasterization, it is also computationally intensive. The best approach for real-time applications is hybrid rendering, a combination of ray tracing and rasterization. Rasterization is used where it is most effective while ray tracing is used where it provides the most visual benefit compared to rasterization. The typical use cases for ray tracing include reflections, diffuse global illumination, shadows, and ambient occlusion while primary visibility is resolved through rasterization as before. Another potential use case for RTX is to implement a more complete path tracer for non-real-time light map baking or for use as a reference in content production and development of less accurate real-time techniques.

Links: https://devblogs.nvidia.com/effectively-integrating-rtx-ray-tracing-real-time-rendering-engine/

48

3D-Tech News Around The Web / Intro to DirectX Raytracing (DXR): DX12 demo with source code

« on: October 26, 2018, 05:54:42 PM »

A barebones application to get you jump started with DirectX Raytracing (DXR)! Unlike other tutorials, this sample code does not create or use any abstractions on top of the DXR Host API, and focuses on highlighting exactly what is new and different with DXR using the raw API calls.

To compile the demo you need VS2017 and the Windows 10 SDK v10.0.17763.0. And to run the demo you need a GPU that support D3D12_RAYTRACING_TIER_1_0. In other words, a GeForce RTX 

Link: https://github.com/acmarrs/IntroToDXR

49

3D-Tech News Around The Web / Torque: Antec's new Open-Air PC Case

« on: October 26, 2018, 05:01:25 PM »

Antec's new open-frame chassis “Torque” is comprised of 14 aluminum panels crafted by high precision CNC digital cutting to ensure perfection in every curve and edge. The bold styling fused with high-end hardware support guarantees an unbeaten experience for builders and enthusiasts.

Torque, a commanding mid tower with a forward-tilted motherboard position, aggressive lines, and plenty of features designed for performance-heavy builds, merges precision cut aluminum panels in high contrast crimson and gunmetal to bring an augmented experience to your desktop.

Torque is entirely open-air, with vast airflow and cooling management measures in place so that form and function are in perfect alignment. The high quality anodized aluminum panels are corrosion resistant, for unrivaled durability.

Links:
- Torque hompage
- Torque intro @ youtube

50

3D-Tech News Around The Web / (NVIDIA) Practical Real Time Ray Tracing With RTX (DX12, Vulkan)

« on: October 24, 2018, 08:01:05 PM »

RTX introduces an exciting and fundamental shift in the way lighting systems work in games and applications. In this video series, NVIDIA Engineers Martin-Karl Lefrancois and Pascal Gautron help you get started with real-time ray tracing. You’ll learn how data and rendering is managed, how acceleration structures and shaders work, and what new components are needed for your pipeline. We’ll also include key slides from the presentation on which this video series is based.

Links:
- Part 1: Ray Tracing: An Overview
- Part 2: Data and Rendering
- Part 3: RTX Acceleration Structures
- Part 4: Ray Tracing Shaders
- Part 5: Ray Tracing Pipeline
- Part 6: Additional Help

#raytracing #rtx #dx12 #vulkan

51

3D-Tech News Around The Web / HWMonitor 1.37 released

« on: October 24, 2018, 04:25:27 PM »

- Improved support of Z390 mainboards.
- New performance limits indicators (NVIDIA GPUs).
- Fix GPU utilization bug reported at 0%.

HWMonitor 1.37 downloads
- download @ Geeks3D
- download @ Author Website

52

3D-Tech News Around The Web / DXC Cookbook: HLSL Coding Patterns for SPIR-V

« on: October 23, 2018, 04:13:47 PM »

This document provides a set of examples that demonstrate what will and will not be accepted by the DXC compiler when generating SPIR-V. The difficulty in defining what is acceptable is that it cannot be specified by a grammar. The entire program must be taken into consideration. Hopefully this will be useful.

We are interested in how global resources are used. For a SPIR-V shader to be valid, accesses to global resources like structured buffers and images must be done directly on the global resources. They cannot be copied or have their address returned from functions. However, in HLSL, it is possible to copy a global resource or to pass it by reference to a function. Since this can be arbitrarily complex, DXC can generate valid SPIR-V only if the compiler is able to remove all of these copies.

The transformations that are used to remove the copies will be the same for both structured buffers and images, so we have chosen to focus on structured buffer. The process of transforming the code in this way is called legalization.

Support evolves over time as the optimizations in SPIRV-Tools are improved. At GDC 2018, Greg Fischer from LunarG presented earlier results in this space. The DXC, Glslang, and SPIRV-Tools maintainers work together to handle new HLSL code patterns. This document represents the state of the DXC compiler in October 2018.

Glslang does legalization as well. However, what it is able to legalize is different from DXC because of features it chooses to support, and the optimizations from SPIRV-Tools it choose to run. For example, Glslang does not support structured buffer aliasing yet, so many of these examples will not work with Glslang.

All of the examples are available in the DXC repository, at
https://github.com/Microsoft/DirectXShaderCompiler/tree/master/tools/clang/test/CodeGenSPIRV/legal-examples 
To open a link to Tim Jones' Shader Playground for an example, you can follow the url in the comments of each example.

Link: https://github.com/Microsoft/DirectXShaderCompiler/blob/master/docs/SPIRV-Cookbook.rst

53

3D-Tech News Around The Web / Physically Based Rendering book: the 3rd Edition is available for free

« on: October 22, 2018, 03:57:28 PM »

The third edition of the Physically Based Rendering book is now available for free here:
http://www.pbr-book.org

Table of contents:
http://www.pbr-book.org/3ed-2018/contents.html

Photorealistic computer graphics is ubiquitous today, with applications that include entertainment—notably, movies and video games; product design; and architecture. Over the past decade, physically-based approaches to rendering have become widely used, where an accurate modeling of the physics of light scattering is at the heart of image synthesis. These approaches offer both visual realism and predictability.

Physically Based Rendering describes both the mathematical theory behind a modern photorealistic rendering system as well as its practical implementation. A method known as “literate programming” combines human-readable documentation and source code into a single reference that is specifically designed to aid comprehension. The ideas and software in this book show the reader how to design and employ a full-featured rendering system capable of creating creating stunning imagery.

The author team of Matt Pharr, Greg Humphreys, and Pat Hanrahan garnered a 2014 Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences based on the knowledge shared in the first and second editions of the book this book. The Academy called the book a “widely adopted practical roadmap for most physically based shading and lighting systems used in film production.”

Of the book, Donald Knuth wrote “This book has deservedly won an Academy Award. I believe it should also be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.”

As of October 15, 2018, the full contents of the third edition of the book are freely available online.

54

3D-Tech News Around The Web / Lunar landing RTX real time raytracing demo

« on: October 22, 2018, 03:22:43 PM »

t’s been almost fifty years since the Apollo 11 moon landing, and the controversy of its staging followed it for many decades after. Four years ago, using our Maxwell GPU technology, NVIDIA addressed the controversy by showing how it would have been impossible to stage.

For Turing, we’ve recreated one of history’s most iconic shots – showcased during Jensen Huang’s keynote at GTC Europe on October 10, 2018. This presentation utilizes NVIDIA RTX real-time ray tracing technology and Unreal Engine to showcase the reflection of light on different surfaces, illustrating how the classic photo was taken.

Links:
- Youtube:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIap1jL14WU

- Jensen’s GTC Europe presentation (interesting part starts at the 23:00 minute)
  https://www.ustream.tv/recorded/117580046 

The source of the controversy: the astronaut shouldn't be so bright in the shadow. NVIDIA explains why the astronaut is lit like that and shows it in the demo:

55

3D-Tech News Around The Web / Winamp is back: version 5.8 build 3660 released!

« on: October 22, 2018, 02:53:16 PM »

The new version of Winamp is back and has been anticipated a bit by its authors because of a leak. The Winamp dev team has then decided to put the official version sooner than expected on the Winamp website.

Official Winamp website: https://www.winamp.com

You can also download Winamp from the download zone:
- new Winamp 5.8
- old Winamp 5.63

Changelog

* New: Windows Audio (WASAPI) Output plug-in (w.i.p.)
* Improved: Added an option to completely disable Winamp's video support
* Improved: Added an auto-fullscreen option to video prefs
* Improved: Added /ENUMPLAYLISTS to the command-line support
* Improved: Windows 8.1 and 10 compatibility
* Improved: [in_mod] OpenMPT-based Module Player (replaces old MikMod player)
* Improved: [ml_playlists] Added browse path & edit title functions in Ctrl+E editor
* Improved: [Bento] Updated scrollbars and buttons and other tweaks (thanks Martin)
* Improved: [Bento & Modern skins] Added a Playlist Search feature (thanks Victor)
* Fixed: New URLs not being remembered after using Reset history in Open URL dialog
* Fixed: Various memory leaks
* Fixed: [gen_tray] Not showing correct current icon pack in preferences
* Fixed: [in_avi] Divide-by-zero crash with badly formed files (thanks ITDefensor)
* Fixed: [in_mp3] Crashing with some ID3v2 tags
* Fixed: [ml_wire] Slow loading issue
* Fixed: [ssdp] Crash on load if jnetlib was not correctly initialized
* Misc: Minimum required OS is now Win XP sp3 (Windows 7 or higher recommended)
* Misc: More general tweaks, improvements, fixes and optimizations
* Misc: Moved shared DLLs to Winamp\Shared folder
* Removed: All former "Pro" licensed functions (Winamp is now 100% freeware again)
* Removed: gen_jumpex & UnicodeTaskbarFix (making way for native implementations)
* Removed: [in_wm] DRM support
* Replaced: CD playback and ripping now using native Windows API (instead of Sonic)
* Replaced: MP3 Decoder now mpg123 based (instead of Fraunhofer)
* Replaced: AAC Decoder now using Media Foundation (Vista and higher)
* Replaced: H.264 Decoder now using Media Foundation (Vista and higher)
* Replaced: MPEG-4 Pt.2 Decoder now using Media Foundation (Vista and higher)
* Updated: [in_vorbis] libogg 1.3.3 & libvorbis 1.3.6
* Updated: [libFLAC] FLAC 1.3.2
* Updated: [libyajl] libyajl v2.1.0
* Updated: [OpenSSL] OpenSSL v1.0.1i
* Updated: [png] libpng v1.5.24

56

3D-Tech News Around The Web / Introduction to real time raytracing with Vulkan

« on: October 12, 2018, 08:15:58 PM »

NVIDIA’s new Turing GPU unleashed real-time ray-tracing in a consumer GPU for the first time. Since then, much virtual ink has been spilled discussing ray tracing in DirectX 12. However, many developers want to embrace a more open approach using Vulkan, the low-level API supported by the Khronos Group. Vulkan enables developers to target many different platforms, including Windows and Linux, allowing for broader distribution of 3D-accelerated applications. NVIDIA’s 411.63 driver release now enables an experimental Vulkan extension that exposes NVIDIA’s RTX technology for real-time ray tracing through the Vulkan API.

This extension, called VK_NVX_raytracing, is a developer preview of our upcoming vendor extension for ray tracing on Vulkan. The extension targets developers who want to familiarize themselves with API concepts and start testing the functionality. As denoted by the ‘NVX’ prefix, this API is not yet final and could undergo some minor changes before the final release.

Link: https://devblogs.nvidia.com/vulkan-raytracing/

#raytracing #vulkan #rtx #vk_nvx_raytracing #vkray #gamedev

57

3D-Tech News Around The Web / Intel Graphics Driver for Windows 24.20.100.6326

« on: October 11, 2018, 05:48:55 PM »

DRIVER VERSION: 25.20.100.6326

-  Fix for FIFA19*
-  Launch Driver Games:
  - Pathfinder: Kingmaker*
  - Battlerite Royale*
  - FIFA19*

This driver update fixes corruption in FIFA19* (DirectX* 11) where some in-game objects may be rendered incorrectly.
Also, explore and conquer lands in Pathfinder: Kingmaker* and jump into Talon* island with Battlerite Royale* on Intel®
UHD Graphics 620 or better.

Get ready and fight alongside your friends in Valkyria Chronicles 4* and put the pedal to the metal in V-Rally 4* with
Intel® Iris Pro Graphics or better.

Downloads:
- Latest Intel HD Graphics driver 64-bit @ Geeks3D
- v6326 @ Intel

Same OpenGL and Vulkan support than v6323.

58

3D-Tech News Around The Web / NVTop: task monitor for NVIDIA GPUs on Linux

« on: October 08, 2018, 08:23:28 PM »

Nvtop stands for NVidia TOP, a (h)top like task monitor for NVIDIA GPUs. It can handle multiple GPUs and print information about them in a htop familiar way.

Link: https://github.com/Syllo/nvtop

59

3D-Tech News Around The Web / VUDA: CUDA in Vulkan

« on: October 08, 2018, 08:17:33 PM »

VUDA is a header-only lib based on Vulkan that provides a CUDA Runtime API interface for writing GPU-accelerated applications.

Link: https://github.com/jgbit/vuda

Example:

Code: [Select]

#include <vuda.hpp>
int main(void)
{
  // allocate memory on the device
  const int N = 5000;
  int a[N], b[N], c[N];
  for(int i=0; i<N; ++i)
  {
    a[i] = -i;
    b[i] = i*i;
  }
  int *dev_a, *dev_b, *dev_c;
  vuda::malloc((void**)&dev_a, N * sizeof(int));
  vuda::malloc((void**)&dev_b, N * sizeof(int));
  vuda::malloc((void**)&dev_c, N * sizeof(int));
  // copy the arrays a and b to the device
  vuda::memcpy(dev_a, a, N * sizeof(int), vuda::memcpyHostToDevice);
  vuda::memcpy(dev_b, b, N * sizeof(int), vuda::memcpyHostToDevice);
  // run kernel (vulkan shader module)
  const int stream_id = 0;
  const int blocks = 128;
  const int threads = 128;
  vuda::kernelLaunch("add.spv", "main", blocks, threads, stream_id, dev_a, dev_b, dev_c, N);
  // copy result to host
  vuda::memcpy(c, dev_c, N * sizeof(int), vuda::memcpyDeviceToHost);

  // do something useful with the result in array c ...

  // free memory on device
  vuda::free(dev_a);
  vuda::free(dev_b);
  vuda::free(dev_c);
}


60

3D-Tech News Around The Web / Windows 10 October 2018 Update Enables DirectX Raytracing (DXR)

« on: October 03, 2018, 02:39:37 PM »

The wait is finally over: we’re taking DirectX Raytracing (DXR) out of experimental mode!

Today, once you update to the next release of Windows 10, DirectX Raytracing will work out-of-box on supported hardware. And speaking of hardware, the first generation of graphics cards with native raytracing support is already available and works with the October 2018 Windows Update.

The first wave of DirectX Raytracing in games is coming soon, with the first three titles that support our API: Battlefield V, Metro Exodus and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Gamers will be able to have raytracing on their machines in the near future!

Link: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/directx/2018/10/02/directx-raytracing-and-the-windows-10-october-2018-update/

To manually update to Windows 10 v1809, just launch the Update Assitant.

DRX related links:
- (GDC 2018) DirectX Raytracing (DXR): Videos + Links
- Why Today Is an Exciting Moment for Gamers and Important Catalyst for Ray-Traced Games
- Introduction to NVIDIA RTX and DirectX Ray Tracing
- DirectX Raytracing Tutorials
- SEED - Project PICA PICA - Real-time Raytracing Experiment using DXR (DirectX Raytracing)


#directx #dxr #direct3d12 #gaming