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<A href="http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990806S0019">http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990806S0019</A>
<font size="5" color="333300">APIs Push 3-D Envelope Amid Setbacks</font>
<font size="2" face="Geneva,Arial">
<!--DATE-->(08/06/99, 4:34 p.m. ET)
<!--BYLINE-->By Rick Merritt and Will Wade,
<!--LINKED PUB--><a href=http://www.eetimes.com>EE Times</a>
</font>
<!--BODY-->
<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <font color="#333300">Three new application programming interfaces for computer graphics hold out hope for new levels of 3-D processing. But a significant delay in one of those APIs -- the Fahrenheit collaborative effort between Microsoft and Silicon Graphics underscores how such software environments are increasingly the bottleneck in delivering new levels of graphics performance.</font></font>
Fahrenheit, which aims to merge the Direct3D API from MicrosoftWindows with the OpenGL environment from SGI into one grand
environment that embraces both mainstream PCs and technical
workstations-is about a year behind schedule, both companies
confirmed.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is working on two other APIs, targeted at different markets. Both, once they are available, will hold out the promise of new applications and features in the graphics market.
Windows 2000 is slated to incorporate GDI+, an API that will merge the existing 2-D GDI and Direct3D formats and is expected to enhance 3-D capabilities on desktop PCs. Separately, DirectX version 7 is expected imminently and will let PC graphics chips use hardware-based transformation and lighting technology for the first time. "The reality is that if these features are not supported by [the API], they don't get used," said Dean McCarron, principal analyst for Mercury Research, in Scottsdale, Ariz. He said graphics-chip vendors are anxiously awaiting
DirectX7 because implementing the transformation and lighting features will off-load much of the geometry computing tasks from the microprocessor and could dramatically improve desktop graphics performance.
In much the same way, Neil Trevett, vice president of marketing for 3Dlabs, in Sunnyvale, Calif., and president of the 3D Web
Consortium, said the 3-D-focused players are eager to see GDI+
implemented. "A fundamental problem in the 3-D industry is that it is not pervasive on the desktop, and that won't happen until GDI+ is supported by Windows," he said.
Only Good 'On Paper'
Nvidia learned the hard way that the hardware won't do anything
the software doesn't support. McCarron said one of the company's early products, the NV1, featured an innovative method to render quadratic surfaces instead of triangles. "On paper, it was a good idea," he said. "But it wasn't supported by any of the major APIs, so it went nowhere."
The Fahrenheit delay demonstrates the increasingly complex nature of advanced graphics. The project was unveiled in December 1997 as part of a broad cooperative effort between SGI and Microsoft. The duo was expected to deliver a range of low- and high-level software architectures that would merge the best of SGI's Unix-based professional-class graphics capabilities with Microsoft's growing 3-D presence for Windows-based PC games.
The work was also aimed at helping mainstream graphics move from its focus on rendering primitive polygons to an approach that would manage and manipulate more complex, higher-level images.
Analyst McCarron said the graphics industry hopes to move in that direction and that adding geometrical calculations to the graphics chips is a critical step in the technology's evolution. Chips for mainstream PCs are just now starting to include the technology, and McCarron expects it to be a hot topic this week at the Siggraph trade show in Los Angeles.
But Microsoft and SGI are finding it more difficult than they expected to unify the Direct3D environment of Windows with the OpenGL API from the graphics giant. The two sides now believe they will not be able to deliver a single low-level API that embraces both environments until at least some time in 2001, and the first high-level tools created for use over both worlds will not be ready for use until some time next year.
The Fahrenheit program has had three goals: a low-level API that would unite Direct3D and OpenGL, a so-called scene graph tool used to manipulate high-level images, and another tool that would let multiple users access and handle very large 3-D graphics models. Work on the scene graph and large model tools is progressing toward beta releases later this year, but the low-level API will take significantly longer. "We have released an alpha version of the scene graph, and a beta version is imminent," said Kevin Bachus, a program manager for graphics
at Microsoft. "We are probably a year behind schedule, with the scene graph release now [expected] in 2000 and the low-level API in 2001."
That API "is in an early research phase," said Chris Insinger, Fahrenheit program manager for SGI. "Direct3D and OpenGL are very different. People think of Fahrenheit as merging the two, but you really have to come up with something new. " The troubles with Fahrenheit come as SGI is expected to announce further shifts in its corporate strategy at Siggraph. Sources said the company may outsource the design of graphics chips to a third party so that it can focus on software- and system-level enhancements.
"For the graphics hardware vendors, the Fahrenheit low-level API is key because we could work on one implementation that would embrace both D3D and OpenGL, instead of trying to support two architectures," Trevett said. "The higher-level pieces of this cooperation, such as the scene graphs used for detail management, are also excellent stuff we really need."
The good news is the scene graph does not require the low-level API, but could be used with Direct3D or OpenGL to open a door to new feature sets in graphics hardware and software. "The need for a scene graph is much greater than for a low-level API," said Insinger of SGI. "Some graphics controllers just concentrate on running Direct3D faster, but that's not the way to get to the next level. The graphics bottleneck is not in
drawing triangles fast; it is in organizing parts of a scene."
While SGI has an existing scene graph tool for OpenGL, the new tool also would run under Direct3D in Windows. However, no release date for the new scene graph has been set. "We wanted to have the second alpha version out before Siggraph, but it looks like it will come out afterward," Insinger said.
3-D On The Desktop
Despite the stalled Fahrenheit API, Trevett said he holds out hope for a new class of mainstream 3-D graphics in between games and engineering to emerge from GDI+. A blend of Microsoft's D3D and its 2-D-oriented GDI technology, the new API is expected to let applications make use of 3-D windows and other graphics effects on a PC. And that will be a critical step toward making 3-D imaging a pervasive factor on the desktop and over the Internet.
One of the biggest barriers to seeing widescale use of 3-D outside of the game sector is the lack of content using 3-D images that actually enhances the user experience. Trevett said once GDI+ lets 3-D become a pervasive experience on the PC, it will spread quickly to the Internet, especially through e-commerce applications.
"Just bringing the OS into the 3-D world will be a great help in filling the chasm [between professional and entertainment graphics]," Trevett said. "Average users will wind up using 3-D all day long without realizing it."
[This message has been edited by pnkflyd51 (edited 08-06-99).]
<font size="5" color="333300">APIs Push 3-D Envelope Amid Setbacks</font>
<font size="2" face="Geneva,Arial">
<!--DATE-->(08/06/99, 4:34 p.m. ET)
<!--BYLINE-->By Rick Merritt and Will Wade,
<!--LINKED PUB--><a href=http://www.eetimes.com>EE Times</a>
</font>
<!--BODY-->
<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <font color="#333300">Three new application programming interfaces for computer graphics hold out hope for new levels of 3-D processing. But a significant delay in one of those APIs -- the Fahrenheit collaborative effort between Microsoft and Silicon Graphics underscores how such software environments are increasingly the bottleneck in delivering new levels of graphics performance.</font></font>
Fahrenheit, which aims to merge the Direct3D API from MicrosoftWindows with the OpenGL environment from SGI into one grand
environment that embraces both mainstream PCs and technical
workstations-is about a year behind schedule, both companies
confirmed.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is working on two other APIs, targeted at different markets. Both, once they are available, will hold out the promise of new applications and features in the graphics market.
Windows 2000 is slated to incorporate GDI+, an API that will merge the existing 2-D GDI and Direct3D formats and is expected to enhance 3-D capabilities on desktop PCs. Separately, DirectX version 7 is expected imminently and will let PC graphics chips use hardware-based transformation and lighting technology for the first time. "The reality is that if these features are not supported by [the API], they don't get used," said Dean McCarron, principal analyst for Mercury Research, in Scottsdale, Ariz. He said graphics-chip vendors are anxiously awaiting
DirectX7 because implementing the transformation and lighting features will off-load much of the geometry computing tasks from the microprocessor and could dramatically improve desktop graphics performance.
In much the same way, Neil Trevett, vice president of marketing for 3Dlabs, in Sunnyvale, Calif., and president of the 3D Web
Consortium, said the 3-D-focused players are eager to see GDI+
implemented. "A fundamental problem in the 3-D industry is that it is not pervasive on the desktop, and that won't happen until GDI+ is supported by Windows," he said.
Only Good 'On Paper'
Nvidia learned the hard way that the hardware won't do anything
the software doesn't support. McCarron said one of the company's early products, the NV1, featured an innovative method to render quadratic surfaces instead of triangles. "On paper, it was a good idea," he said. "But it wasn't supported by any of the major APIs, so it went nowhere."
The Fahrenheit delay demonstrates the increasingly complex nature of advanced graphics. The project was unveiled in December 1997 as part of a broad cooperative effort between SGI and Microsoft. The duo was expected to deliver a range of low- and high-level software architectures that would merge the best of SGI's Unix-based professional-class graphics capabilities with Microsoft's growing 3-D presence for Windows-based PC games.
The work was also aimed at helping mainstream graphics move from its focus on rendering primitive polygons to an approach that would manage and manipulate more complex, higher-level images.
Analyst McCarron said the graphics industry hopes to move in that direction and that adding geometrical calculations to the graphics chips is a critical step in the technology's evolution. Chips for mainstream PCs are just now starting to include the technology, and McCarron expects it to be a hot topic this week at the Siggraph trade show in Los Angeles.
But Microsoft and SGI are finding it more difficult than they expected to unify the Direct3D environment of Windows with the OpenGL API from the graphics giant. The two sides now believe they will not be able to deliver a single low-level API that embraces both environments until at least some time in 2001, and the first high-level tools created for use over both worlds will not be ready for use until some time next year.
The Fahrenheit program has had three goals: a low-level API that would unite Direct3D and OpenGL, a so-called scene graph tool used to manipulate high-level images, and another tool that would let multiple users access and handle very large 3-D graphics models. Work on the scene graph and large model tools is progressing toward beta releases later this year, but the low-level API will take significantly longer. "We have released an alpha version of the scene graph, and a beta version is imminent," said Kevin Bachus, a program manager for graphics
at Microsoft. "We are probably a year behind schedule, with the scene graph release now [expected] in 2000 and the low-level API in 2001."
That API "is in an early research phase," said Chris Insinger, Fahrenheit program manager for SGI. "Direct3D and OpenGL are very different. People think of Fahrenheit as merging the two, but you really have to come up with something new. " The troubles with Fahrenheit come as SGI is expected to announce further shifts in its corporate strategy at Siggraph. Sources said the company may outsource the design of graphics chips to a third party so that it can focus on software- and system-level enhancements.
"For the graphics hardware vendors, the Fahrenheit low-level API is key because we could work on one implementation that would embrace both D3D and OpenGL, instead of trying to support two architectures," Trevett said. "The higher-level pieces of this cooperation, such as the scene graphs used for detail management, are also excellent stuff we really need."
The good news is the scene graph does not require the low-level API, but could be used with Direct3D or OpenGL to open a door to new feature sets in graphics hardware and software. "The need for a scene graph is much greater than for a low-level API," said Insinger of SGI. "Some graphics controllers just concentrate on running Direct3D faster, but that's not the way to get to the next level. The graphics bottleneck is not in
drawing triangles fast; it is in organizing parts of a scene."
While SGI has an existing scene graph tool for OpenGL, the new tool also would run under Direct3D in Windows. However, no release date for the new scene graph has been set. "We wanted to have the second alpha version out before Siggraph, but it looks like it will come out afterward," Insinger said.
3-D On The Desktop
Despite the stalled Fahrenheit API, Trevett said he holds out hope for a new class of mainstream 3-D graphics in between games and engineering to emerge from GDI+. A blend of Microsoft's D3D and its 2-D-oriented GDI technology, the new API is expected to let applications make use of 3-D windows and other graphics effects on a PC. And that will be a critical step toward making 3-D imaging a pervasive factor on the desktop and over the Internet.
One of the biggest barriers to seeing widescale use of 3-D outside of the game sector is the lack of content using 3-D images that actually enhances the user experience. Trevett said once GDI+ lets 3-D become a pervasive experience on the PC, it will spread quickly to the Internet, especially through e-commerce applications.
"Just bringing the OS into the 3-D world will be a great help in filling the chasm [between professional and entertainment graphics]," Trevett said. "Average users will wind up using 3-D all day long without realizing it."
[This message has been edited by pnkflyd51 (edited 08-06-99).]
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