SCIENCE

3Dlabs Inc., Ltd., a leading innovator in professional visual processing, today announced the availability of the first OpenGL(R) Shading Language shader development environment, RenderMonkey(TM) 1.5. As a joint collaboration with ATI, RenderMonkey 1.5 will be available for free download at www.3dlabs.com in April. 3Dlabs is a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. The OpenGL Shading Language, shipping as the official OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB) extension to OpenGL 1.5 and has been ratified to be a core element in the upcoming OpenGL 2.0 API, enables new generations of Visual Processor Units (VPUs) to be programmed in a high-level language, which support a variety of visually complex and computationally intensive applications. RenderMonkey 1.5 provides software developers a real-time, interactive environment for creating shader programs using advanced programmable VPUs such as 3Dlabs' Wildcat(R) VP graphics accelerators. "The programmable graphics revolution demands innovation at all stages of content development and deployment; RenderMonkey 1.5 support for the OpenGL Shading Language is another significant step towards enabling ISVs and developers to unleash the power of programmable VPUs," said Neil Trevett, senior vice president of market development at 3Dlabs. "Our work on RenderMonkey 1.5 has been very successful since we are dedicated to enabling the market for programmable graphics hardware through open standards development and freely distributing advanced shader development tools." "3Dlabs' effort and expertise has been invaluable in adding OpenGL Shading Language support into RenderMonkey 1.5 so rapidly and seamlessly," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president of marketing and general manager, desktop for ATI Technologies Inc. "We look forward to continued cooperation between our two companies in developing both RenderMonkey and widening the market for programmable graphics hardware." RenderMonkey 1.5 RenderMonkey 1.5 is an integrated development environment with a graphical user interface used to write and adjust shader attributes, such as the definition of color, textures, graphics state, scalars, vectors and matrices. Developers will realize significant productivity gains and increased flexibility while working with this new OpenGL development tool, because it eliminates the need for handwritten OpenGL Shading Language programs for many visual effects. RenderMonkey 1.5 supports both engineering and artistic workflows by protecting the engineer's shading algorithm while allowing the artist to control an algorithm's aesthetic parameters. The shader development tool has been designed to support a plug-in architecture that enables developers to create new, customized components, as needed. RenderMonkey 1.5 works well with a number of shading languages, including the OpenGL Shading Language, Microsoft(R) HLSL and assembly-level shading languages due to its plug-in friendly architecture. RenderMonkey 1.5 stores shaders and their attributes in the highly portable XML file format for easy interchange with other applications.