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Ray tracing comes to more games thanks to new software tools
You haven't seen much ray tracing in games due in part to the limited frameworks for it. Outside of Microsoft's DirectX, creators have usually had to lean on proprietary approaches. Soon, though, it might be relatively ubiquitous. The Khronos Group has released "provisional" ray tracing extensions for Vulkan, the open graphics standard effectively replacing OpenGL on multiple platforms. You should see sophisticated reflections, fewer light artifacts and otherwise more natural-looking lighting in titles that support the technology.
Super-efficient 'Vulkan' leaves your games more graphics power
Psst: the games you play might not look as good (or run as smoothly) as they could. In many cases, the overhead from graphics standards gets in the way -- Apple went so far as to develop its own technology just to make sure that iPhones and iPads could live up to their potential. That bottleneck may not exist for much longer, however. The alliance behind the OpenGL video standard has given a sneak peek at Vulkan, an open standard that lets app writers take direct control of graphics chips and wring out extra performance on many devices, whether it's your phone or a hot rod gaming PC. The software isn't a magic bullet (developers still have to make good use of it), but it could easily lead to richer visuals and smoother frame rates without demanding beefier hardware.
OpenCL 2.0 provisional spec gets outlined, OpenGL 4.4 released
SIGGRAPH has only just begun, but the Khronos Group is already giving folks of the graphics programming persuasion some fresh APIs to talk about. Yesterday marked the release of the OpenCL 2.0 provisional specification, and it's boasting an Android installable client driver extension, along with improvements to image handling, shared virtual memory and more. It's expected that the new version of OpenCL will be finalized in six month's time, and feedback regarding the changes are being welcomed. The fresh OpenGL 4.4 spec revamps everything from shaders to asynchronous queries while keeping full backwards compatibility, and includes additional functions to make porting Direct3D apps a smoother process. If parallel programming and cross-platform graphics are your thing, hit the break for the full feature breakdown in the press releases.
OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenGL 4.3 squeeze textures to the limit, bring OpenVL along for the ride
Mobile graphics are clearly setting the agenda at SIGGRAPH this year -- ARM's Mali T600-series parts have just been chased up by a new Khronos Group standard that will likely keep those future video cores well-fed. OpenGL ES 3.0 represents a big leap in textures, introducing "guaranteed support" for more advanced texture effects as well as a new version of ASTC compression that further shrinks texture footprints without a conspicuous visual hit. OpenVL is also coming to give augmented reality apps their own standard. Don't worry, desktop users still get some love through OpenGL 4.3: it adds the new ASTC tricks, new visual effects (think blur) and support for compute shaders without always needing to use OpenCL. All of the new standards promise a bright future in graphics for those living outside of Microsoft's Direct3D universe, although we'd advise being patient: there won't be a full Open GL ES 3.0 testing suite for as long as six months, and any next-generation phones or tablets will still need the graphics hardware to match.
ARM claims new GPU has desktop-class brains, requests OpenCL certificate to prove it
It's been a while since ARM announced its next generation of Mali GPUs, the T604 and T658, but in the semiconductor business silence should never be confused with inactivity. Behind the scenes, the chip designers have been working with Khronos -- that great keeper of open standards -- to ensure the new graphics processors are fully compliant with OpenCL and are therefore able to use their silicon for general compute tasks (AR, photo manipulation, video rendering etc.) as well as for producing pretty visuals. Importantly, ARM isn't settling for the Embedded Profile version of OpenCL that has been "relaxed" for mobile devices, but is instead aiming for the same Full Profile OpenCL 1.1 found in compliant laptop and desktop GPUs. A tall order for a low-power processor, perhaps, but we have a strong feeling that Khronos's certification is just a formality at this point, and that today's news is a harbinger of real, commercial T6xx-powered devices coming before the end of the year. Even the souped-up Mali 400 in the European Galaxy S III can only reign for so long.
Microsoft decides to pass on WebGL over security concerns (Update: iOS 5 supports WebGL, sort of))
Well, it looks like Microsoft is taking those warnings about WebGL pretty seriously. The company has decided not to support the web-based 3D standard because it wouldn't be able to pass security muster. Highest on the list of concerns is that WebGL opens up a direct line from the internet to a system's GPU. To make matters worse, holes and bugs may crop up that are platform or video card specific, turning attempts to plug holes in its defense into a game of whack-a-mole -- with many players of varying reliability. Lastly Microsoft, like security firm Context, has found current solutions for protecting against DoS attacks rather unsatisfying. Lack of support in Internet Explorer won't necessarily kill WebGL and, as it matures, Microsoft may change its tune -- but it's still a pretty big blow for all us of hoping the next edition of Crysis would be browser-based. Update: As is usually the case Apple and the Windows folks are on opposite sides of this one. In fact, the Cupertino crew plans to bring WebGL to iOS 5 with one very strange restriction -- it will only be available to iAd developers. Now, chances are it will eventually be opened up in mobile Safari for everyone, but for the moment it seems browser-based 3D graphics will be limited to advertisements on the iPhone. Still, that's another big name throwing its support behind the burgeoning standard. [Thanks, Greg]
WebGL flaw leaves GPU exposed to hackers
Google spent a lot of time yesterday talking up WebGL, but UK security firm Context seems to think users should disable the feature because it poses a serious security threat, and the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) is encouraging people to heed that advice. According to Context, a malicious site could pass code directly to a computer's GPU and trigger a denial of service attack or simply crash the machine. Ne'er-do-wells could also use WebGL and the Canvas element to pull image data from another domain, which could then be used as part of a more elaborate attack. Khronos, the group that organizes the standard, responded by pointing out that there is an extension available to graphics card manufacturers that can detect and protect against DoS attacks, but it did little to satisfy Context -- the firm argues that inherent flaws in the design of WebGL make it very difficult to secure. Now, we're far from experts on the intricacies of low-level hardware security but, for the moment at least, there seems to be little reason for the average user to panic. There's even a good chance that you're not vulnerable at all since WebGL won't run on many Intel and ATI graphics chips (you can check by clicking here). If you're inclined to err on the side of caution you can find instructions for disabling WebGL at the more coverage link -- but come on, living on the cutting edge wouldn't be anywhere near as fun if it didn't involve a bit of danger. [Thanks, Tony]
OpenGL 4.0 arrives, brings more opportunities for general purpose GPU action
What's a Game Developers Conference without some sweet new tools for developers to sink their teeth into? Khronos Group, the association behind OpenGL, has today announced the fourth generation of its cross-platform API spec, which takes up the mantle of offering a viable competitor to Microsoft's DirectX 11. The latest release includes two new shader stages for offloading geometry tessellation from the CPU to the GPU, as well as tighter integration with OpenCL to allow the graphics card to take up yet more duties off the typically overworked processor -- both useful additions in light of NVIDIA's newfound love affair with tessellation and supposed leaning toward general purpose GPU design in the Fermi chips coming this month. Lest you don't care that much about desktop gaming, OpenGL ES (Embedded Systems, a mobile offshoot of OpenGL) is the graphics standard on "virtually every shipping smart phone," meaning that whatever ripples start on the desktop front will be landing as waves on your next superphone. If that holds true, we can look forward to more involvement from our graphics chips beyond their usual 3D duties and into spheres we tend to care about -- such as video acceleration. Now you care, don't ya?
Apple joins consortium, iPhone rumoring churns
Thought you could slip one past us, didn't you Apple, just like you did with BAPco? Well, let's be fair, it wasn't entirely a low profile day for Khronos, the media software consortium that Apple just joined today along with the likes of Dell and Google (among others), and we do know it's not so much like insular Cupertino to lower the drawbridge and send out envoys to industry groups with goals as nebulous as creating open APIs for the "authoring and playback of rich media on a wide variety of platforms and devices." Other Krhonos members of note include, well, just about every major tech company around, but since that also includes names like Symbian, Motorola, Samsung and so on we'll hold on tight to the iPhone angle. Because really, at this point it's just easier than spending yet more time with the tea leaves and divining stick.[Via iPodWizard, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
