ATI, NVIDIA and Microsoft, oh my!
On a positive note the latest version of the ATI driver set (and the tweaked omega drivers based on in) include OpenGL 2.0 support as per the GL_VERSION string.
GL_VENDOR: ATI Technologies Inc.
GL_VERSION: 2.0.5220 WinXP Release
GL_RENDERER: MOBILITY RADEON 9600 x86/SSE2
ATI has done a very poor job of getting an SDK together. Previously there was no SDK so you had to go here and download individual examples. The fact that there is a package shows progress but the rate at which new examples are added is very low (especially compared to nvidia’s pace). The package contains an implementation of various stages of ARB, ATI, EXT and other extensions that can be used including the function bindings and constants. It has many examples for both OpenGL and DirectX that use the various “new” techniques. The problem with the SDK is that it has too much stuff cluttering up the important parts. Its a lot like the HalfLife SDK in that respect. I want to be able to extract the OpenGL function and constant bindings to link into my application but I have to bring in 6 other .[ch] files too. The code is setup for Visual Studio 7 and does not work very well in Visual Studio 2005 Express which a lot of (home-brew) developers are using; I have some complaints there too (distribution of compiled code?, sorry no), another post maybe. I had to go back to a web example “GLSL_simple_shader” and extract what I needed from it to do the shading that I wanted. The problem is that gl.h, glati.h, extsetup.h, GLextensions.h, etc are all at various stages and don’t really bode well for ease of use. I can’t complain too deeply because I haven’t spent many sleepless nights pouring over the latest SDKs extension setup but when I do I’ll let you know how I fair and hopefully have a much better (more compact and correct) version of the code for you guys to use.
NVIDIAs 9.5 SDK has everything under our yellow sun and some from red and blue suns unknown to normal man. Its amazing what a developer centric company like NV can create. I am constantly amazed by the books/demos/movies/etc that are posted on their site. Cudos to Mark J Kilgard and the gang for making me really badly want the latest NV product to run my MSc tests on so if you feel like sending one my way I’d be much indebted ;o)
Has anybody download anything from Microsoft lately? How about used Windows Update? No, spyware toasted your IE so you have to depend on auto updates now? I hear ya. I just spent an extra 10 minutes (thanks to my highspeed connection) downloading a special Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) control to check my computer for validity, then going to the site again to verify/install the control, then use the control, then finally get to the updates I needed (of which there are another 6 today). This whole WGA thing is ridiculous, the other day I tried to download MS Antispyware from Firefox and it took about 30 minutes or so to get through the WGA stuff. They have a special version you can download and run then enter a code into a website to continue. I think MS is doing a psyche experiment on all of us, seeing how far they can go before their market share is notched enough by Macs to force them to care again. I’d say they don’t have to bother because Vista should do that nicely. Once I can run MacOSX on my Centrino laptop I’m out of Windows land … until the next time I want to play Grand Theft Auto: Hot Coffee, dammit! Will I ever be free! Come on WINE!