Still kicking, but mostly coding
No blog posts (or even blog reading!) for the last while, because I am completely flooded with assignments right now. The CS 454 (Dist’d Systems) assignment I am working on right now, building a working RPC system, it taking forever. And mostly because the assignment specifications, while detailed, have left more questions than answers in some areas. Thus, I have been implementing it fairly slowly, piece by piece. At least they gave the entire class an 8 day extension… but I am guessing that is because the specs are so vague. I think this is the first time in my CS career at UW that a class was given a huge multi-day extension.
I have not even started my graphics assignment which is due Tuesday. And it is the creation of a ray tracer! That is also going to take forever. I am guess the blog posting will be slow for a while longer. In the meantime, here are some cool graphics related stories I had noted a few days (probably weeks) ago.
CMU scientist honoured for novel method of using computers to simulate collisions of objects
Dr. Doug L. James, assistant professor of computer science and robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, has developed new methods to make computers simulate collisions a thousand times faster than previous methods.In a computer, the shape of an object is typically represented by tens of thousands of tiny triangles. In conventional programs, when an object collides with something, the shape of each triangle is recomputed, based on physical principles.
“In most cases, things don’t touch each other all over their surfaces,” he explained. So, using what he calls “bounded deformation trees,” the computer does detailed computations only for those triangles that are touching. That reduces the amount of computing drastically and thus speeds up the entire process.
TransGaming’s SwiftShader technology provides the world’s fastest pure software 3D renderer with DirectX 9.0 class features, according to the company, including support for Pixel and Vertex Shaders. SwiftShader is built to provide the same APIs that developers are already using for their games and applications. This makes it possible to directly integrate SwiftShader into applications without any changes to source code. Direct3D 8 and Direct3D 9 compatible APIs are available immediately.
HDR (High Dynamic Range) Technology
HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is a lighting process that’s been designed to emulate in-game or artificially generated lighting to closely mirror the changes we see in the real world.
In simpler terms, HDR allows you to make the objects brighter by allowing them to use the full brightness capabilities of the monitor and not just the brightness level at which they have been shot with (or rendered with) in the scene.
