Designed for animators working on state-of-the-art feature films, games, television series and commercials, FBX allows most 3D data types to flow effortlessly between different software applications. The Alias FBX SDK is the free, easy-to-use C++ software development toolkit that provides FBX conversion utilities to any 3D software application. The FBX SDK will soon support the COLLADA XML-based digital asset schema. COLLADA was recently adopted as an open-standard initiative by Khronos and is used by game content developers - including those developing art assets for the PLAYSTATION 3 and wireless handheld devices. More than 2,500 content developers will gain support for the COLLADA schema and file exchange with this update to the FBX SDK. Leading 3D products that already support FBX and consequently will support COLLADA include Maya, Softimage, Discreet (inferno, flame, flint) Eovia (Cararra, Amapi, Hexagon) , Cinema 4D, Lightwave 3D, QuickTime, and more.

Hybrid Graphics announced the Hybrid Mobile Framework v6 for embedded devices. In addition to OpenGL ES and JSR 184 implementations, Mobile Framework v6 adds full support for OpenVG 1.0, an SVG Tiny player and support for graphics hardware from DSP chips to full-fledged hardware 3D accelerators.

AlexVG is the first commercial software engine based on the OpenVG 1.0 API. This video capture of the demo produced for IBC2005 shows OpenVG rendering of paths, images, paint, blending, transformation, and image filters. The demo running under desktop Windows is not hardware accelerated, but the images are nevertheless smooth and fluidly scalable with sophisticated transitions, filters and effects. AlexVG is hardware scalable and can be used in SVG viewers, electronic maps, e-books, graphic user interfaces, and games.

ATI 3D Developer Days run October 19-20 in San Francisco ($150 registration). The sessions focus on the latest tools and SDKs for creating visually compelling 3D content using ATI SDKs, tools and media processors. Sessions of interest to handheld developers:

• Optimizing Handheld Games for ATI’s IMAGEON 2300 - focuses on optimizations for this full-featured, OpenGL ES-accelerated 3D hardware solution for mobile phones.
• ATI’s Handheld SDK - explains how developers can get the most out of ATI’s latest Handheld products.
• OpenGL ES - by Dan Ginsburg discusses how OpenGL ES 2.0 introduces the majority of the functionality used by today’s desktop games into the embedded space and the major impact it will have on mobile game developers. While OpenGL ES 2.0 ushers in the shader era to mobile gaming, it also means that mobile game developers will need to make significant changes to their applications.
• Qualcomm Gaming Road Map - presents QUALCOMM’s MSM chipset roadmap for graphics (OpenGL ES for 3D), audio and location based technologies for gaming

The open source Firefox Web browser continues to grow in popularity. The new Firefox 1.5 Alpha 2 release includes a new

The new high-end Dell Axim X51v handheld running Windows Mobile 5.0 uses a Intel 2700G multimedia accelerator with 16MB video memory. The multimedia accelerator incorporates the PowerVR MBX IP core with support for OpenGL ES 1.0. The PowerVR MBX OpenGL ES SDKs include documentation, source code, demos and tools that allows developers to create applications using the OpenGL ES 1.0 API.

Fathammer, a leading publisher and developer of 3D mobile game technologies (X-Forge) and games, will develop 5 new OpenGL ES-accelerated advanced 3D mobile games for the KTF “GPANG” game portal. KTF is one of the largest mobile phone operators in South Korea and accelerated 3D gaming will get many users hooked to KTF’s Gpang. The games will take advantage of OpenGL ES hardware acceleration on LG 3600 Gpang phones, and will run without hardware acceleration on earlier generation Gpang phones.

Diehl Avionik Systeme (think Airbus and large military aviation programs) and Zandiant Technologies, a leading supplier in automotive navigation and telematics systems have become Khronos Contributing Members with a focus on OpenGL SC. Rapidly-emerging markets that require OpenGL SC 1.0 include: cutting-edge automotive instrumentation; avionics displays that must pass the FAA-mandated DO-178B certification process; industrial applications such as power plant instrumentation, transportation monitoring and control; and real-time display of medical data requiring 100% reliability for surgery. While these industries have traditionally relied on proprietary subset definitions of OpenGL, manufacturers are now demanding open standard solutions to reduce development costs and shorten product development times. Also Princess Interactive has become an OpenGL ES Adopter in order to port their INSIDES V4.0 HMI-virtual prototyping/virtual cockpit system to OpenGL ES.

Hybrid Rasteroid OpenGL ES 1.0 and 1.1 (Common profile) can be used for evaluation and non-commercial application development. The new BREW 2.x and 3.x extensions are available to developers for evaluation.

This presentation from the IBC2005 press briefing overviews the Khronos family of APIs and Tools of royalty-free platform for media acceleration. In addition to the technical and strategy material about OpenGL ES, OpenML, OpenMAX, OpenVG, Collada and OpenSL ES, the press conference was also an opportunity for demonstrations of OpenGL ES on OMAP2 from Texas Instruments (multiple engines for parallel processing on your handset which lets you play OpenGL ES 3D games on your mobile device with diplay on a TV) , and of the new MTIS alexVG OpenVG 1.0 software implementation for the ARM & XScale Platforms (Windows and Linux).

alexVG is the first commercial software engine based on the OpenVG 1.0 API, The high performance rendering pipeline offers complete support for paths, images, paint, blending, transformation, and image filters. Uses include SVG viewers, electronic maps, e-books, graphic user interfaces, and games. MTIS will demonstrate alexVG at the Khronos Press Conference at IBC2005, 12 September 2005.

JSR-234, known as “Advanced Multimedia Supplements API”, adds a new and advanced set of mobile audio capabilities for J2ME devices, including 3D sound positioning, real time signal processing, radio tuner control and other features. This interview on Sonify.org with Jonathan Page of Sonaptic, discusses the potential for new applications of mobile audio using JSR-234 and the various features and implementations of the new specification. OpenSL ES will act as the hardware acceleration API for the audio features of JSR-234.