Tuesday, September 9, 2003

Hello, Cg!

Want to start using Cg or HLSL to write shaders? nVidia has just posted a paper I wrote on getting started with Cg.

Check it out at developer.nvidia.com/object/hello_cg_tutorial.html

Friday, July 4, 2003

High Dynamic Range images for OpenGL

8-bit color channels holding you back?

Want colors values greater than 1.0?

Want a floating-point buffer even though the hardware doesn't exist yet?

Want control over exposure and gamma?

Fusion Industries is proud to release "HDR for OpenGL", a class which allows floating-point high dynamic range images to be used in OpenGL! Works on all video cards (TNT/GeForce/Radeon) and no extensions are required.

The future is now! Get HDR for OpenGL.

Monday, June 2, 2003

FI Cg/HLSL Shading Language FAQ

I've created a Cg and HLSL FAQ for those who are learning or working with the shading languages Cg and HLSL. It covers topics such as profiles, semantics, vertex and fragment shaders, and interfacing the languages with C/C++.

Any comments, questions, additions or corrections are encouraged and welcomed.

Read the FAQ.

Thursday, May 1, 2003

FI in the News

Fusion Industries has been quoted (verbatim) about the ATI Radeon 9700/SDK on ATI developer's website at www.ati.com/developer/quotes

"Mojo training day really shows that ATI cares about its developers and the community by providing us with technology, training and the tools needed to create next-generation graphics for games and visualization applications."

"In addition, the release of RenderMonkey has been an essential tool in our shader development process. Mojo day showed me how to take advantage of the advanced DirectX 9 HLSL technology quickly and easily with stunning results."

-Alex, Graphics Engineer, Fusion Industries.

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Little Fluffy Clouds

I've recently been working on cloud lighting and rendering, based on the dissertation by Mark Harris at UNC.

We consider a cloud to be a collection of points which collect light from the sun and scatter it back to the viewer. I represent the cloud as a particle system with cloud particle billboards and light it using equations based on Harris' paper.

Images (work in progress):


Fluffy white clouds Fluffy dark clouds
Front
Back

On a related note, I've probably spent more time (four days) really making a good, flexible design than the actual coding (refer to the software design article). After all, coding is about thinking, not typing.

Saturday, March 15, 2003

Supply and Demand

Not even two days had passed when the phone rang.

I answered and on the other end was Microsoft.

"I have some good news for you. Both groups want you!" my recruiter said.

 I've decided to work with the Windows Tablet PC group for the summer. I'm really excited and I can't wait to go. I'll be working with the latest technologies and creating things that will be used by many people.

I feel an incredible amount of temptation to move into industry, but I'll definitely finish grad school first.

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Jet Set Alex Future

For a brief moment, I was part of the jet set.

Microsoft flew me up to Redmond on Monday and flew me back home on Tuesday so I could interview for a summer internship. This was called by Slashdot.org, "The Internship That Students Drool Over" (along with a link to an article and great discussion about it).

I spent the entire day interviewing separately with four developers in two groups. Each person gave me one or two programming or logic problems, which I solved with relative ease. (Examples include: given a set of numbers, remove the duplicates, optimize the sqrt out of a circle-drawing routine, minimize comparisons, and real-life work problems that my NDA probably won't let me discuss).

Everyone I talked with (from developers to recruiters to the shuttle drivers) was very approachable, friendly, energetic, and sincerely passionate about their job. Even better, I could talk with them at a comfortable technical and personal level too.

I'll find out at some point next week if I get an internship from one (or both) groups and when I do, I'll post it right away.

For more information on internships at Microsoft, visit www.microsoft.com/college.

Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Software Design

Have you ever wondered about how software was written? In my latest article, I describe the planning and design process I go through when I'm writing software, and encourage other programmers to plan before programming.

Check out the Software Design article in the updated Lore section!

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Five


Happy 5th to Fusion Industries!

I've been working on visualizing surface flow over an aircraft over the last year and I'm writing a paper on it. I've posted a preview of the current project at: www.fusionindustries.com/alex/flow.

Thursday, January 9, 2003

Volunteer at the GDC!

The Game Developers Conference experience is so great that I want to share it with others. The Volunteer form is up, but hurry! Applications are due by Jan 31!

After all the stories and pictures from the event, how could you not want to do it? Best of all, its free (in exchange for your time), so it's accessible to students, indie developers, and even game developers who can't get their company to pay for the conference.