{"id":297,"date":"2009-09-17T11:35:02","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T17:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/?p=297"},"modified":"2010-07-18T07:56:43","modified_gmt":"2010-07-18T13:56:43","slug":"clearing-the-queue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/clearing-the-queue\/","title":{"rendered":"Clearing the Queue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve have a goal this week (it should be clear by now) of clearing my queue of stored-up RTR links by my birthday, today! (Hint: I want a pony.) So excuse the excessively-long list o&#8217; links. Next task on my list, update the <a href=\"http:\/\/realtimerendering.com\/\">main RTR page itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/meshula.net\/wordpress\/?p=349\">StructureSynth<\/a>. This looks pretty cool, and I love procedural models (my ancient <a href=\"http:\/\/tog.acm.org\/resources\/SPD\/\">SPD package<\/a> was all about this, back in the days when downloading models was oppressively slow). I do wish they just provided an executable &#8211; building looks like a pain.<\/li>\n<li>That previous link was on <a href=\"http:\/\/meshula.net\/wordpress\/\">Meshula.net<\/a>, which also blogs about <a href=\"http:\/\/meshula.net\/wordpress\/?p=363\">Pixel Bender Fractals<\/a>. Great stuff, sort of steampunk computer graphics: you must <a href=\"http:\/\/www.subblue.com\/blog\/2009\/7\/18\/artforms_of_nature\">click this link<\/a>, if no other on this page, and look on in awe.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/\">Shapeways has a blog<\/a>, and it&#8217;s not just dull company announcements. I&#8217;m glad they find <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/archives\/287-Arirang-Festival-Mass-Games-Pyongyang,-North-Korea.html#extended\">people as pixels<\/a> as interesting as I do. They also cover <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/archives\/282-3D-Printing-your-Spore-characters.html\">exporting Spore characters<\/a> to Collada files (which is a great addition to Spore) and creating physical models from these.<\/li>\n<li>In related news, <em>The Economist<\/em> has a reasonable <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/sciencetechnology\/tq\/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14299512\">summary of some trends in 3D printing<\/a>. Their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/sciencetechnology\/tq\/\">Technology Quarterly<\/a> also has articles on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/sciencetechnology\/tq\/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14299602\">Augmented Reality<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/sciencetechnology\/tq\/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14299526\">3D displays<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/sciencetechnology\/tq\/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14299700\">CAPTCHAs<\/a>, among other topics.<\/li>\n<li>This is one more reason the Internet is great: an <a href=\"http:\/\/aras-p.info\/texts\/CompactNormalStorage.html\">in-depth article on normal compression techniques<\/a>, weighing the pros and cons of each. This sort of article would probably not see the light of day in traditional publications, even <em>Game Developer <\/em>&#8211; too long for them, but all the info presented here is worthwhile for a developer making this decision.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/aras-p.info\/blog\/\">Aras&#8217; blog<\/a> has other nice bits such as <a href=\"http:\/\/aras-p.info\/blog\/2009\/07\/30\/encoding-floats-to-rgba-the-final\/\">packing a float into RGBA<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/aras-p.info\/blog\/2009\/09\/17\/strided-blur-and-other-tips-for-ssao\/\">SSAO blurring<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>I need to add a link to the article itself to the <a href=\"http:\/\/realtimerendering.com\/intersections.html\">object intersection page<\/a>, but Morgan McGuire recently verified that he found <a href=\"http:\/\/jgt.akpeters.com\/papers\/EisemannEtAl07\/\">this ray\/box algorithm<\/a> super-fast in SIMD. Code&#8217;s downloadable from that page, free version of article is downloadable\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/realtimerendering.com\/intersections.html\">here<\/a>. Morgan uses this test in the ray tracer for his <a href=\"http:\/\/graphics.cs.williams.edu\/papers\/PhotonHPG09\/\">cool photon mapping paper at HPG 2009<\/a>; if nothing else, you should at least see <a href=\"http:\/\/graphics.cs.williams.edu\/papers\/PhotonHPG09\/ISPM-HPG09-video.mp4\">the video<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>In related news, I am happy to see that AK Peters is beginning to put <a href=\"http:\/\/akpeters.metapress.com\/content\/120927\/\">past <\/a><em><a href=\"http:\/\/akpeters.metapress.com\/content\/120927\/\">journal of graphics tools<\/a><\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/akpeters.metapress.com\/content\/120927\/\"> articles online<\/a>. At $15 each, the price of an article is quite high for individuals (or at least this individual), but current <a href=\"http:\/\/jgt.akpeters.com\/\"><em>journal of graphics (gpu, &amp; game) tools<\/em><\/a> subscribers have full access to this archive for free. The mechanism to get access is a little clunky right now: if you&#8217;re a subscriber, you need to <a href=\"http:\/\/metapress.com\/identities\/registration\/individual\">register with Metapress<\/a>, then <a href=\"mailto:marketing@akpeters.com\">tell AK Peters your userid<\/a> and they&#8217;ll provide you access.<\/li>\n<li>Related to this, I hope <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/\">Google Books<\/a> conquers the world (or anyone else doing similar work, as long as it isn&#8217;t Apple or Amazon or other overcharging closed-box &#8220;we&#8217;re just protecting the authors, who get 10% or less for a purely digital sale with nil physical cost to us per unit&#8221; retailers &#8211; rant over, and I do understand there are fixed start-up costs for the retailer\/publisher\/etc., but really&#8230;). Google Books is so darn handy to look for short articles in books at Google&#8217;s repository, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=87NzFbSROUYC&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA15&amp;dq=Building+an+Orthonormal+Basis+from+a+Unit+Vector&amp;ots=I933IaLIM5&amp;sig=CdaFNAf2M5neEwf9q7S3UoPxXyU#v=onepage&amp;q=&amp;f=false\">this one<\/a> giving a clean way to build an orthonormal basis given a vector, from <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Graphics-Tools-JGT-Editors-Choice\/dp\/1568812469?tag=realtimerenderin\">Graphics Tools: The JGT Editors&#8217; Choice<\/a><\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Humus provides a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.humus.name\/index.php?page=Textures\">whole slew of new cubemaps<\/a> he captured, if you&#8217;re getting tired of <a href=\"http:\/\/debevec.org\/Probes\/\">Grace Cathedral<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>CUDA itself (vs. others) may or may not be a critical technology, but <a href=\"http:\/\/c0de517e.blogspot.com\/2009\/05\/how-gpu-works-appendix.html\">what it shows about the underlying GPU architecture<\/a> is fascinating.<\/li>\n<li>It should be mentioned: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/downloads\/details.aspx?FamilyID=b66e14b8-8505-4b17-bf80-edb2df5abad4&amp;displaylang=en\">August 2009 DirectX SDK<\/a> is available. Includes the first official release of DirectX 11.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.humus.name\/index.php?ID=283\">This is hilarious<\/a>, and possibly even useful!<\/li>\n<li>I love seeing things like this: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.maximumpc.com\/article\/features\/maximum_pc_builds_a_multitouch_surface_computer\">build your own multitouch display<\/a>. Not that I&#8217;ll ever do it, but I hope others will.<\/li>\n<li>You might be sick of Larrabee news (ship one, already!), but I found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.futuregpu.org\/2009\/04\/nvidia-talks-larrabee.html\">Phil Taylor&#8217;s article<\/a> pleasantly hype-free and informative.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amd.com\/us\/products\/technologies\/eyefinity\/Pages\/eyefinity.aspx\">ATI&#8217;s Eyefinity<\/a> (cute marketing name, I must admit &#8211; now I want to use the word everywhere) seems to me to solve a problem that rarely occurs: too much GPU for too few screens. Still, it&#8217;s nice to have the option. Eyefinity allows up to six monitors to be driven by a single GPU. I guess Eyefinity is useful when running older flight simulator programs on newer GPUs; otherwise, Eyefinity is pretty irrelevant. Eyefinity, eyefinity, eyefinity. At work I find two displays is plenty, one to run, one to debug. Anyway, the sweet spot for the monitor:GPU ratio is 13:1, as can be seen <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cartoonbarry.com\/2007\/11\/weird_geek_pictures_chip_car_f.html\">here<\/a>:<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-300\" title=\"Flight Simulator - living the dream\" src=\"http:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/1933854057_1007ba91f0.jpg\" alt=\"Flight Simulator - living the dream\" width=\"500\" height=\"380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/1933854057_1007ba91f0.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/1933854057_1007ba91f0-300x228.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/feature\/4028\/sponsored_feature_rendering_grass_.php\">article on instancing animated grass using DX10<\/a> on Gamasutra.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.humus.name\/index.php?ID=255\">Humus&#8217; summary of z interpolation<\/a> is a good summary of the topic. He gives some of the key tricks, e.g., if you&#8217;re using floating point, use a near=1.0 and far=0.0 to help preserve precision.<\/li>\n<li>Here&#8217;s a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.significant-bits.com\/a-laymans-guide-to-projection-in-video-games\">basic tutorial<\/a> on different projection methods used in videogames, with lots of visual examples (add &#8220;Zaxxon&#8221; and it&#8217;s complete, for me). The one new tidbit I learnt from it was about <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reverse_perspective\">reverse perspective<\/a>, an effect I&#8217;ve made myself once every now and then when I screw up a projection matrix.<\/li>\n<li>While I&#8217;ve been on break (one of the reasons I&#8217;ve been posting so much &#8211; Autodesk gives wonderful 6 week &#8220;sabbaticals&#8221;, aka &#8220;long vacations&#8221;, to U.S. employees every four years you&#8217;re there; it&#8217;s like being <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesizing.com\/1vacatns.htm\">French or Swedish<\/a> every fourth year), the rest of the company&#8217;s been busy: this new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YwYm5YhA0pQ\">sketch application<\/a> for the iPhone looks pretty cool, at the usual $2.99 &#8220;cup of coffee&#8221; type price.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/idUSTRE4BM4HH20081223\">Caustics can be dangerous<\/a>. I can attest to this myself; a goofy award Andrew Glassner gave me long ago sat on my windowsill for years (I moved once, as you should discern from the picture), until I noticed what was happening to the base:<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-301\" title=\"caustics\" src=\"http:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/caustics-300x212.png\" alt=\"caustics\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/caustics-300x212.png 300w, https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/caustics-1024x725.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/caustics.png 1050w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/li>\n<li>I usually don&#8217;t have time to keep up with <a href=\"http:\/\/slashdot.org\/\">Slashdot<\/a>, but <a href=\"http:\/\/seenonslash.com\/\">SeenOnSlash<\/a>, the funny bits of SlashDot, is sometimes entertaining. Graphics-related example:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/seenonslash.com\/node\/3600\">AMD&#8217;s latest chip<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve have a goal this week (it should be clear by now) of clearing my queue of stored-up RTR links by my birthday, today! (Hint: I want a pony.) So excuse the excessively-long list o&#8217; links. Next task on my list, update the main RTR page itself. StructureSynth. This looks pretty cool, and I love [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[238,237,241,16,239,244,240,243,33,242,54,236,203,245,55,102],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources","tag-3d-displays","tag-3d-printing","tag-augmented-reality","tag-books","tag-captchas","tag-caustics","tag-compression","tag-cubemaps","tag-directx","tag-fractals","tag-larrabee","tag-photon-mapping","tag-procedural-modeling","tag-projection","tag-ray-tracing","tag-ssao"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1634,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions\/1634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtimerendering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}