NVIDIA release PerfKit 5 and FX Composer 2 ISV dev tools
Tuesday 31st July 2007, 01:01:00 PM, written by Rys
Since the GDC beta releases of PerfKit and FX Composer earlier in the
year, NVIDIA have been hard at work finishing what are arguably its
most important ISV tools. The tools enable developers to not only
author shader effects to run on the GPU, but also to profile and debug
the application that uses them at runtime.
The combination of PerfKit -- which contains PerfHUD and the PerfSDK -- and FX Composer 2.0 is the spearhead of what NVIDIA offer ISVs on the tools side to help develop their 3D applications.
Both have long needed an update or ten. FX Composer 1.x has significant UI baggage and no support for shader authoring in the most modern models, and PerfKit simply hasn't worked with DX10 GPUs that NVIDIA has been shipping for nearly a year now. Therefore DX10 development hasn't been as easy as it could have been for ISVs working with NVIDIA graphics hardware.
Today sees the first full releases of both, including crucial support for 64-bit development on Vista, with usability and usefulness updates forming the core of the improvements to both tools. FX Composer 2 doesn't support SM4.0 shaders via HLSL just yet, however, with developers having to wait until after SIGGRAPH to get their hands on a build that lets you work with DX10.
We've been hands-on with beta builds for a while now, so full reviews of both will follow soon on Beyond3D. If you want to check them out, visit the NVIDIA developer site for PerfKit and FX Composer 2 and download the installers for app and driver that you'll need, depending on what you want to do.
It goes without saying that effective debugging and performance analysis of 3D applications is crucial to the development process for ISVs, and we'll talk to developers soon to discuss just how much they get out of the tools available from both main graphics IHVs.
NVIDIA also have some new developer forums with dedicated PerfKit and FX Composer 2 subforums for users.
The combination of PerfKit -- which contains PerfHUD and the PerfSDK -- and FX Composer 2.0 is the spearhead of what NVIDIA offer ISVs on the tools side to help develop their 3D applications.
Both have long needed an update or ten. FX Composer 1.x has significant UI baggage and no support for shader authoring in the most modern models, and PerfKit simply hasn't worked with DX10 GPUs that NVIDIA has been shipping for nearly a year now. Therefore DX10 development hasn't been as easy as it could have been for ISVs working with NVIDIA graphics hardware.
Today sees the first full releases of both, including crucial support for 64-bit development on Vista, with usability and usefulness updates forming the core of the improvements to both tools. FX Composer 2 doesn't support SM4.0 shaders via HLSL just yet, however, with developers having to wait until after SIGGRAPH to get their hands on a build that lets you work with DX10.
We've been hands-on with beta builds for a while now, so full reviews of both will follow soon on Beyond3D. If you want to check them out, visit the NVIDIA developer site for PerfKit and FX Composer 2 and download the installers for app and driver that you'll need, depending on what you want to do.
It goes without saying that effective debugging and performance analysis of 3D applications is crucial to the development process for ISVs, and we'll talk to developers soon to discuss just how much they get out of the tools available from both main graphics IHVs.
NVIDIA also have some new developer forums with dedicated PerfKit and FX Composer 2 subforums for users.
Screenshots
Tagging
nvidia ± perfkit, perfhud, fx, composer, ISV, tools
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