Khronos is happy to announce a very well rounded Birds of a Feather (BOF) schedule
for SIGGRAPH’s 34th international conference and exhibition on computer graphics
and interactive techniques. Running August 7th and August 8th at the San Diego
Convention Center, these informal get-togethers are filled with presentations,
discussions, and demonstrations for people who share interests, goals, technologies,
environments, or backgrounds in OpenGL, OpenGL ES, OpenKODE, COLLADA, OpenVG,
OpenMAX and much more.

gDEBugger, an OpenGL and OpenGL ES debugger and profiler, traces application activity on top of the OpenGL API, lets programmers see what is happening within the graphic system implementation to find bugs and optimize application performance. The new V3.1 Adds Support for debugging and profiling OpenGL applications on Windows Vista™. Also, gDEBugger OpenGL state variables Comparison Viewer now automatically compares all current state variables values to the OpenGL default render context values. This version also includes significant performance improvements.

SOFTBANK MOBILE Corporation has adopted the OpenKODE standard for advanced graphics and media processing in its new Portable Open Platform Initiative (POP-i) platform for mobile phones that was also announced today. The POP-i platform will enable native applications to access the full power of the OpenKODE media stack architecture which enables 2D graphics, 3D graphics, video and audio to be accelerated and flexibly combined to unlock the full potential of rich media silicon. The use of OpenKODE will encourage and protect the investment of software developers in the POP-i platform by ensuring application portability across multiple handsets – both now and into the future as new handsets are introduced.

NASA Ames Research Center has released the first early access version of World Wind Java, NASA’s leading-edge, open-source 3D planetary visualization system. World Wind Java lets you zoom from satellite altitude to any place on Earth. The new Java version utilizes OpenGL for its 3D rendering via JOGL, and runs on all major operating systems. Make sure to try the DiSTI Corporation’s F-16 flight simulator built using World Wind Java!

MotionNode is an affordable 3-DOF inertial measurement unit for use in motion sensing applications. The sensor is extremely small, easy to use, and yields accurate orientation tracking results. MotionNode can be used in real-time applications or as a motion capture device.

The open source Software Development Kit (SDK) provides real-time access to the sensor data streams. Recorded motions can be exported to industry standard animation formats, such as COLLADA and FBX, for effortless integration with existing Digital Content Creation (DCC) pipelines and software.

The goal of the MotionNode system is to make high quality, easy to use motion sensing technology available to everyone. To achieve this goal, the software platform is designed with an open architecture, using standard components whenever possible. COLLADA provides a widely supported and flexible asset format that meets the current needs of the MotionNode system, while allowing for future growth.

MADLIX lets users insert 3D-content in web pages, blogs, Google pages, community presentations and more. MADLIX is OpenGL-powered and runs smoothly inside all Java-enabled browsers, with no need for custom plug-ins or application installation. The on-line gallery at www.madlix.com features high-quality content ready for insertion. MADLIX is accompanied by the MADLIX exporter tool enabling 3D artists to directly export their 3D artwork from Autodesk Maya to the MADLIX gallery. The exporter features pre-view functionality as well as a standalone viewer, supporting the MADLIX file format and the open standard file format COLLADA.

DMP announced one day of Advanced OpenGL ES Programming Training in Tokyo. This course demonstrates the more sophisticated techniques possible using the OpenGL ES 1.1. By explaining the techniques required to generate images of greater realism, the course provides deeper insights into OpenGL ES functionality. Also, this course refer to performance aspects of OpenGL ES application and basic concept of OpenGL ES 2.x. Participants must have programming knowledge (especially C), a good grasp of computer graphics concepts as well as a familiarity with the basic topics of the OpenGL ES 1.1. This course is held in Japanese.

DMP announced a two day OpenGL ES Programming Course for beginners in Tokyo. This course provides the knowledge that a novice OpenGL ES programmer needs to author interactive, 3D graphics applications using OpenGL ES. It covers fundamental topics such as overview of architecture, modeling, and lighting, and introduces advanced topics using extensions such as matrix palette skinning animation. Attendees should be able to read simple programs written in the C language. No previous experience with writing graphics programs is required. This course is held in Japanese.

Live from FMX 07: The most recent version of COLLADA is 1.4.1 and the standard specifications have been downloaded 800,000 times, from the numbers presented, about 15% of the game developers are actively using the standard to date. COLLADA is heading towards the “specific interfaces for specific jobs, all sharing the same data” line. Though still somewhere in the future, visitors got to see some of these ideas implemented in free to use tools like NVIDIA’s “FX Composer” - a software to compose shaders, and “Open Physics Composer” - a tool to create and set up physics environments.

The presentations from the Shanghai media acceleration forum are now available as PDFs. Presentations cover Neil Trevett (embedded content at NVIDIA) on Desktop and 3D authoring with OpenGL, COLLADA and glFX, Acrodea on Game Development Middleware & OpenKODE, Imagination Technologies on OpenGL ES and market opportunities and Portable native mobile media applications.

Just back from the hilltop city of Perugia, where the Web3D 2007 Symposium was held, Web3D Executive Director Rita Turkowski announced that this year was a great success. Highlights from the symposium included X3D tutorials, and an inspiring keynote by Kari Pulli, Khronos Member and Research Fellow at Nokia, giving insight into where 3D on mobile is going. Also at the Symposium we heard an excellent COLLADA tutorial by Khronos Member Rémi Arnaud of SONY SCEA and Bruno Patatas, CEO of Pixelbox Academy. Web3D will be at Siggraph 2007 with a presence in the Khronos booth.

Feeling Software has just released version 3.03 of its Feeling Viewer. Designed explicitly to support everything in the COLLADA 3D file format, the Feeling Viewer has advanced shading effects, complex character animations (e.g. skinning and morphing) and physics. If you’re an artist looking for a good viewer to display your complex animated scenes, look no further: this is the most advanced 3D viewer available commercially. Your animated models will look just as good or better in the Feeling Viewer than in the original CAD or DCC application. The Feeling Viewer is not just for playback: the underlying Feeling 3D Engine is extensible and has been integrated in several 3rd party applications to enhance them with fast, top-notch 3D graphics with relatively little programming effort. The Feeling Viewer now runs on Linux, Mac OS X, Internet Explorer, Powerpoint and many more applications. This is accompanied by many new features including complex particle systems, trimmed NURBS surfaces and environment mapping.