The new release of the Bullet Collision Detection and Physics Library includes an updated version of the COLLADA 1.4.1 Physics Viewer. This new v.7 supports COLLADA import/export of compound shapes (more then one collision shape), import/export of generic D6 constraints (no limits/motors) and ,

support. The viewer is available for Windows, Intel Mac OS X, and Linux.

The material for the SIGGRAPH 2006 course ‘OpenKODE: An Open Mobile Media Development Environment’ is now available on line. The web page contains links to the pdf presentations, as well as all of the supplementary material that was made available as part of the SIGGRAPH 2006 Conference Proceedings DVD.

The Korean Standard Organization TTA (Telecommunication Technology Association) has launched a project to develop standard benchmarks for scalable vector graphics solutions including OpenVG and SVG. ETRI is a lead in the project. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics, W3C) and OpenVG (Khronos Group) standards are rapidly being adopted in many devices and applications, but there is no objective benchmark for performance comparison. The new benchmark test will provide objective and standard tests suite to compare performance and features of implementations of vector graphics standards, SVG and OpenVG. Requirements and index for performance evaluation will be collected until the end of 2006.

OpenSceneGraph is an open source high peformance 3D graphics toolkit, used by application developers in fields such as visual simulation, games, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modelling. The COLLADA plugin for OpenSceneGraph is a reader/writer that now uses COLLADA DOM v1.4.1. The plugin supports both import and export of visual scenes, geometries, and profile_COMMON effects.

Bellagio enables Linux software developers and ISVs to familiarize themselves with OpenMAX IL API and to develop their own OpenMAX components for multimedia codecs and controls. This guide details how developers can build OpenMAX IL components using the Bellagio OpenMAX open source distribution. It is based on Bellagio 0.2, but it is anticipated that some details may change in the future with new project releases. OpenMAX components are written in C but an object-oriented approach has been used to avoid code duplication, so that common OpenMAX functions are implemented in a so-called “base component” and can be overridden by derived components.

At SIGGRAPH NVIDIA showed NVPerfHUD ES, a new performance tool for handheld GPUs. This is a comprehensive suite of performance tools to help debug and profile OpenGL ES applications by giving you access to low-level performance counters inside the driver and hardware counters inside the GPU itself. The counters can be used to determine exactly how your application is using the GPU, identify performance issues, and confirm that performance problems have been resolved. It works well in conjuction with gDEBugger ES.

The Khronos Tech Talks and presentations from the OpenGL and OpenGL ES BOFs are available as Powerpoint slides for download. The Tech Talks cover OpenGL ES 1.x, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG and COLLADA. The OpenGL BOF covers OpenGL 2.1, OpenGL running under Vista, working group updates and directions for OpenGL 3. The OpenGL ES BOF includes gDEBugger ES, overview and open source news.

Mobile 3D Graphics offers an in-depth look at OpenGL ES and teaches fundamental 3D mobile graphics programming with standard APIs. It covers the basic and advanced application program interfaces behind the major wireless and mobile devices supporting 3D graphics applications. It includes: a comprehensive explanation of 3D mobile graphics programming; an extensive range of OpenGL ES code samples; and examples of combining 3D and 2D mobile graphics methods. Available for pre-order now.

Kishonti Informatics announced the beta versions of GLBenchmark Pro and GLBenchmark HD, 3D performance benchmarks for OpenGL ES compatible Brew, Linux, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices. The new benchmarks not only measure OpenGL ES 1.0 and 1.1 application performance, but also let direct comparison of native OpenGL ES and Java based mobile 3D implementations. The final versions of the applications will be released this autumn.

The new OpenGL 2.1 specification adds backwards compatible enhancements to OpenGL’s advanced programmable pipeline including: Pixel Buffer Objects for fast texture and pixel copies between frame buffer and buffer objects in GPU memory; texture images specified in standard sRGB color space for enhanced application color management flexibility; and numerous additions to increase the flexibility of shader programming including non-square matrix support, support for arrays as first-class objects, a fragment position query in shaders using Point Sprites and an invariant attribute for variables to enhance shader code reliability.

Also announced, the Graphic Remedy Academic program will offer a free one year license to its gDEBugger OpenGL debugger and profiler tool to OpenGL developers in academia.

The COLLADA open standard XML-based digital asset exchange schema for interactive 3D applications is gaining rapid industry acceptance. COLLADA 1.4 is now supported by the industry’s leading 3D authoring tools including 3ds Max, Blender, DAZ|Studio, Feeling Viewer, FX Composer, Google Earth, Houdini, Maya, Sketchup, and XSI as well as Khronos’ COLLADA Test Framework, COLLADA DOM/FX/RT/Refinery COLLADA 1.4 includes core features such as mesh geometry, skinning, morphing, animation and data validation as well as COLLADA FX for defining visual effects and COLLADA Physics for physics effects including rigid body dynamics, rag dolls, constraints and collision volumes.

The latest release of the PowerVR Insider SDK, version 1.9, is the biggest yet. It features over 30 variants supporting a wide range of platforms, from SoC applications processors such as TI’s OMAP2 and Freescale’s iMX31 to consumer products using PowerVR-enabled SoCs such as the Sony Ericcson P990/M600/W950 mobile phones and Dell Axim X51v PDA. A wide range of API and OS are supported too, including OpenGL ES and OpenVG APIs running on Symbian, Linux, and WinCE5. A Beta OpenGL ES 2.0 SDK is available now to lead PowerVR Insider members.