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FX Composer is a powerful integrated development environment for shader authoring. With support for OpenGL and DirectX, COLLADA FX, and CgFX, HLSL, as well as .obj, .3ds, .dae, .fbx, and .x formats, FX Composer provides true cross-platform functionality. This release candidate of FX Composer 2 includes various bug fixes and minor improvements, including better support for older Shader Model 2-class GPUs.

Tiny little Mightyware, an Indy company by solo programmer TJ Bandrowsky, has released ‘Independent’ for PCs running Windows XP. You play an astronaut, whom upon arriving on another planet, decides to claim it for himself. As a result, all heck breaks loose. This game, with play inspired partially by the old Intellivision game Astrosmash, features an edgy smattering of a storyline, but really, is a high speed shootem up. Independent makes rich use of OpenGL fragment and vertex shaders.

MADLIX lets users insert 3D-content in web pages, blogs, Google pages, community presentations and more. MADLIX uses OpenGL and runs with all Java enabled webrowser. The updated MADLIX site features a new and improved 3D viewer with model preview, faster loading and Facebook integration. In Facebook users can share models using the MADLIX 3D-wall. The content pipeline has been updated with an on-line publisher available for all Java enabled platforms supporting the COLLADA 1.4.1 specification.

Trinigy, a leading company in the sector of 3D game engines, today announced that it closed a multiplatform licensing deal with Firefly Studios Ltd. for the production of a new blockbuster title. UK & US-based Firefly Studios are the creators of multiple award-winning games and are well-known for their highly successful Stronghold series as well as CivCity: Rome. “We are delighted with the Vision Engine and with the excellent support we are receiving from Trinigy”, explains Simon Bradbury, Founder and Director of Firefly Studios. “Vision does not only provide an impressive set of out-of-the-box features, but also possesses the flexible architecture necessary to create an ambitious multiplatform Next-Gen title we have in our pipeline”.

The fourth edition of OpenGL® SuperBible, the newest member of the Addison Wesley OpenGL Technical Library, is now available! OpenGL SuperBible, Fourth Edition, begins by illuminating the core techniques of “classic” OpenGL graphics programming, from drawing in space to geometric transformations, from lighting to texture mapping. The authors cover newer OpenGL capabilities, including OpenGL 2.1’s powerful programmable pipeline, vertex and fragment shaders, and advanced buffers. They also present thorough, up-to-date introductions to OpenGL implementations on multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, UNIX, and embedded systems. The reference pages for all of the OpenGL 2.1 commands are included! The source code is available now without the book here.

Slashdot has posted a book review on 'Computer Graphics Using Java 2D and 3D' by Y. Daniel Liang (Author) and Hong Zhang (Author). "All in all, it's clear that the authors are excellent teachers. This shows in their effective use of the teaching-by-example style. As stated in the preface, the authors intended their book for students and computer professionals who want to learn basic computer graphics concepts and techniques and who want to get started in programming with the Java 2D and 3D APIs. I believe they have succeeded in this goal, and if you are in this group of readers, I can confidently recommend their book." You can purchase the book directly from Amazon.

Scenomics today announces the release of Scenome Modeling Tools. Scenome is a full-featured OpenGL-compatible 3D modeling software for building scalable, terrain databases. Scenome builds OpenSceneGraph-compatible terrain from DEM and GEOTIFF imagery. With parametric construction tools, very fast previews, and realistic, level-of-detail texturing, Scenome delivers accurate results and convenience features found nowhere else.

Independent game and software developer, Midori, has announced the release of a new environmental game called, ‘Global Warning,’ made for Mac OS X and Windows. Global Warning is Midori’s second environmental game following ‘Recycle,’ a game for toddlers teaching the important basics of sorting trash. The new release, Global Warning, was created with OpenGL for multiplatform release.

Drishti is a volume exploration and presentation tool using OpenGL Shading Language shaders and 3D textures. Drishti is designed to let users explore volumetric datasets as well as use in presentations. The software now has novel graphical interface for downscaling 16/32bit volumes to 8bit volumes. Enclosing surfaces, distance and volume estimations are also now possible. Windows, Mac OSX, Linux executables and source code are available for download at http://sf.anu.edu.au/Vizlab/drishti

Introducing VMGL, which provides OpenGL Hardware 3D Acceleration for Virtual Machines. It is a program that you install in both the host and guest and allows for virtualizing the OpenGL functions. When tested in xen with Quake 3 & Unreal Tournament 2004 it provides for up to 87% of the performance of the native implementation. It has been tested under vmware and xen but it should work under any of the other virtualization solutions out there - kvm, qemu, virtual box.

A 2-day intermediate OpenSceneGraph developer training session will be held September 26-27 in Huntsville, Alabama, in conjunction with the Terrain Summit 07 conference. OpenSceneGraph is an OpenGL-based cross platform open source scene graph API. Course instructors are Bob Kuehne (co-author, OpenGL Programming on Mac OS X) and Paul Martz (author, OpenGL Distilled). Visit the URL for online course registration.

OpenGL based ActiveSolid v2.5.1 adds interactive view clipping plane manipulation, and is the first freeware release of the ActiveSolid product.

Devshed has posted a tutorial called Game Programming with SDL: Getting Started with OpenGL. The first part and the articles coming in the near future detail the different aspects of OpenGL along with how SDL helps in creating a good framework for future purposes. SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL, and 2D video framebuffer. It is used by MPEG playback software, emulators, and many popular games, including the award winning Linux port of “Civilization: Call To Power.” SDL officially supports SDL supports Linux, Windows, Windows CE, BeOS, MacOS, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, Solaris, IRIX, and QNX.

Advanced NVIDIA G86 technology, ELSA GLADIAC 850GT 256B3 is your ideal choice for high definition multi-media applications. Powered by NVIDIA G86 engine, ELSA GLADIAC 850GT 256B3 supports up to 600MHz core clock. With advanced NVIDIA G86 technology, ELSA GLADIAC 850GT 256B3 fully support DirectX 10, Shader Model 4.0, OpenGL 2.0 and Windows Vista. 256MB -1.4ns GDDR3 Memory enables ELSA GLADIAC 850GT memory clock boost up to 1400MHz.

NVIDIA has announced the latest beta of FX Composer 2. This release includes several improvements: better support for foreign languages, Vista x64 fixes, and bug fixes. Make sure to check out our new FX Composer 2 overview slide deck. FX Composer is a powerful integrated development environment for shader authoring. With support for DirectX and OpenGL, HLSL, COLLADA FX, and CgFX, as well as .fbx, .x, .3ds, .obj, and .dae formats, FX Composer provides true cross-platform