tequila bomb

Graphical front-end for the PVRUniSCo shader compiler allowing easy creation and editing of OpenGL ES 2.0 shading language vertex and fragment shader programs in addition to POWERVR FX (PFX) files.

PVRShaman is an integrated shader development environment allowing rapid-prototyping of new vertex and fragment shader programs. PVRShaman brings together geometry exported using PVRGeoPOD (or converted using Collada2POD), textures compressed using PVRTexTool and on-the-fly editing of Shader programs with editing functionality on the same level as the PVRUniSCo Editor. Projects are saved as POWERVR FX files allowing easy integration with your code base.

For the longest time I have been optimising my own OpenGL ES shaders using my knowledge of the underlying hardware and things that may stall or slow down the pipeline. It is not very clear on Imagination Technologies’ site that these tools are now available as OS X utilities that run in X11. All you need to do is download the folder of the app, rather than the .exe, and then “chmod +x” the relevant file for your OS (Linux or OS X).

PVRUniSCo is particularly useful as it gives you estimated instruction / cycle counts for shaders. Some estimates for shaders I have long thought were fairly optimal surprised me, and showed me where I had perhaps missed a trick or two.

Recommended development resources, if you haven’t already found them and had a play.

Just found this when downloading an update of OS X OpenGL Extensions viewer. It’s free and a very handy resource to have on any development device.

You can enabled WebGL in OS X 10.6.5 for the WebKit nightly build using this Terminal command :

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitWebGLEnabled -bool YES

After that you should check out a few of these demos...

And then perhaps check out this great resource…

Ultimately be sure to visit the Khronos WebGL page.

The Snow Leopard Graphics Update contains stability and performance fixes for graphics applications and games, including fixes that:

• address frame rate issues occurring in Portal and Team Fortress 2 on certain Macs
• resolve an issue that could cause Aperture 3 or StarCraft II to unexpectedly quit or become unresponsive

This is all good of course.

But come on Apple, how about one that..

• “increases your OpenGL number from 2.x to 3.0.”

Since there is no preferred device orientation for iPad, OpenGL rendering on the device must handle that. I have added arbitrary device orientation to my HelloiPadGLSL code to demonstrate how to handle that. It turns out to be relatively easy if you think in terms of the MVC design pattern Apple has established and implement the proper methods in your Controller and View. I include liberal doses of NSLog-ing to stare at for your pleasure:

On GitHub: http://github.com/turner/HelloiPadGLSL

Nice piece of reference code.

While the helping hand will only go out to developers planning to use the Steamworks community infrastructure, Valve’s business development director Jason Holtman claimed that coding for the graphics layer is “the real hard work in a making a Mac version.”

…

In order to expedite development of OSX-compatible games, “We’re going to release some of our graphics code for the GL layer,” Holtman said in an interview (to be published in full next week).

Great strategy.

I’d be interested in taking a look at what they are offering, if  I wasn’t committed to my own engines. But Valve certainly seem to be serious about giving both developers and consumers alike, the best experience they can.

New functionality in the core OpenGL 4.1 specification includes:

• Full compatibility with OpenGL ES 2.0 APIs for easier porting between mobile and desktop platforms;
• The ability to query and load a binary for shader program objects to save re-compilation time;
• The capability to bind programs individually to programmable stages for programming flexibility;
• 64-bit floating-point component vertex shader inputs for higher geometric precision;
• Multiple viewports for a rendering surface for increased rendering flexibility.

New ARB extensions introduced with OpenGL 4.1 include:

• OpenGL sync objects linked to OpenCL event objects for enhanced OpenCL interoperability;
• The ability to set stencil values in a fragment shader for enhanced rendering flexibility;
• Features to improve robustness, for example when running WebGL applications;
• Callback mechanisms to receive enhanced errors and warning messages.

It is simply crazy that Apple are still not even fully up to date with OpenGL3.0 in OS X yet. The features of OpenGL4.1 simply scream Apple and OS X.

One has to wonder if Apple is perhaps planning to skip OpenGL3.0 altogether?

The full spec is available in the OpenGL Registry.