<!–#set var="article_header" value="ATI Mojo Day:
A Graphic Education For Developers” –>
Introduction
Legends or myths that exist within the computer industry press community are something that you don’t read much about. The legend surrounding ATI’s use of the word “mojo” is no exception. The legend goes something like this: a very famous game developer is rumored to have asked NVIDIA, “It looks like with the release of the Radeon 9700, that ATI stole your graphics mojo?” Indeed. The “mojo” reference comes from the latest “Austin Powers” film, which is part of the theme that ATI has adopted to describe the “coolness” factor of what they are now doing.
As with the legends of 3DFX’s Rampage product, myths such as these continue to wind their way through the media. Although THG doesn’t spend much time talking about them, we could fill volumes with the legends, myths, and rumors that we hear and elect not to write about because they can’t be properly verified. We find the use of the word “mojo” to be a breath of fresh air, due to the fact that (as we have complained before) ATI’s product packaging has previously lacked the “coolness” factor needed to compete in such a competitive marketplace.
ATI is working hard to change this perception, and we saw that with ATI’s participation at Quakecon this year (see our article entitled, Quakecon 2002 – Day 1. ATI has made great strides in positively impacting the way that people think about their products. We have seen these changes, and we think ATI is headed in the right direction. Of course, the bigger question is, “Will these changes translate into sales?” If early reports are any indication, with ATI’s launch of the Radeon 9700, the answer is YES!
One question that graphics card manufacturers find difficult to answer is the following: when is the next-generation software going to be developed to make full use of these new, next-generation graphics cards? While graphics card manufacturers may not really know the answer to such a question, one thing is apparent: additional education is necessary for game developers to take full advantage of these new graphics card technologies. Unlike adding small features that really don’t require much guidance or instruction, the new technology that is found in today’s modern graphics card is so sophisticated that software developers need more training, technology and more information.
This concept is not lost on ATI. If a developer doesn’t understand what the possibilities of these new technologies are, it will be difficult to implement them in today’s software products in a way that really takes advantage of all they have to offer. The reality is, next-generation technologies have to be fostered today, and training needs to start immediately, because the development cycle for today’s modern software is so lengthy. It has been said that laying a solid foundation for DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2.0 is essential to carry software development into the next several years, as these technology advancements offer a fundamental shift in the method in which the software will be developed, and in the additional functions that the software will offer.
Introduction, Continued
While software companies spend many dollars in the development of these new, next-generation games, one thing is apparent: the technology that is in these next-generation cards becomes more difficult to use with each introduction of new cards and features. We believe that the onus is partially on the graphics card companies to make sure that the software developers are properly briefed and educated so that they are able to deliver these next-generation technologies in their next-generation software titles. Recently, ATI invited us to what they called “ATI Mojo Day.” ATI Mojo Day was an opportunity for software developers to get first-hand briefings, training and information about how these new graphics card technologies will change the development of software titles. What is important to note is that the level of sophistication of the modern GPU is so advanced that no level of immediate, out-of-the-box training can substitute for real hands-on experience. Rather than putting on an event that was centered around optimizing performance for ATI products, ATI chose a different route: ATI partnered with Microsoft and Intel to offer an event for developers that was ‘API agnostic.’ This allowed the developers, whether they choose DirectX or OpenGL, to benefit from the information presented at this conference. The information and instruction was designed for the benefit of developers, regardless of the kind of products they are developing, and no matter what HLSL they are using. One thing is for certain: while consumers are dying to see what the capabilities are for these new graphics card technologies, without being properly briefed and trained, there is no possibility that the developers will be able to successfully implement them.
Mojo Day class is in session.
The struggle for backward compatibility is something else with which graphic card developers are still trying to deal, from both an internal and a marketing perspective. It is obvious that backward compatibility will play a role in the development of new software titles, since not all graphics cards support DirectX 8.1 and 9 technologies. Although people are excited about the next-generation technologies, next-generation technology titles generally would not sell enough copies for them to be very profitable unless these technologies continue to support the older cards, as well.
When we talk about next-generation games not selling enough titles, it is important to understand that the market in PC games is so small that it is difficult to sell titles period, let alone attempt to sell them after narrowing the pool of available customers by customizing the game to take advantage of these new technologies. While it is true that DirectX is the game developers’ common programming interface, the ability to harness the DirectX technology is still somewhat difficult to come by. In order to get to the next level of graphics development, it is essential that graphic developers understand now what the capabilities of these new technologies are. It is interesting to note that graphics technology is moving at such a torrid pace that it is unlikely the companies that are introducing the cards even understand the full limits and capabilities of those cards.
While technology demos provide a brief glimpse into what these new technologies may offer, they are no substitute for hard-core software titles that use this new technology. It is unfortunate that we cannot have more titles that are able to take advantage of these new technologies, right out of the gate. Instead, these new innovations must be implemented into the next-generation of software titles.
ATI agreed to give us behind-the-scenes, limited access to their Mojo Day event. We believe two things are clear. First, ATI is committed to software developers. That goes without saying. For this event, ATI teamed up with Microsoft and Intel to help them educate software developers on the finer points of coding for their own GPU and to provide information on coding for DirectX and coding for the CPU. The second clear point is that ATI wanted this event to be more developer-focused, so they carefully avoided making this event a media circus. We had to be like flies on the wall, and cover this event from a respectful distance. While we had the same full access to all of the events and areas that the usual attendees do, we were told to take a more ‘hands-off’ approach, so that this event did not get labeled as nothing more than a media circus, or a showcase for the media. The focus of the Mojo Day event was solely on the developers and the technology.
We believe that events like this are important for strengthening not only a particular company’s dominance in the graphics card industry, but also technology dominance in the graphics card industry. With the advent of DirectX 9, you will see evolutionary things being executed with these cards. ATI is committed to providing as much support and information as is available through its developer relations team. This developer relations team is committed to assist game developers in software development for optimization with ATI products, as well as for performance and optimization on the platform in general. As we explained earlier, this goes back to ATI’s new strategy and philosophy that conferences such as these should be API-agnostic.
It takes quite a team from ATI to put on the Mojo Day show. As you can see, this is only part of the crew.
This event was not the usual dog and pony show to which many may be accustomed. It was low-key, high-end information with high-level impact. With the level of sophistication in GPUs continuing to increase, we believe that it will be more commonplace for companies to hold events such as this in support of the developers. After all, the software is the key to selling the hardware. What good is having the fastest graphics card on the planet if you have no software to take advantage of its features? That said, let’s take a peek into ATI Mojo Day.
Mike Smith And Richard Huddy Talk Mojo Day
If you had to put your finger on why ATI is investing so much time in developer relations, look no further than ATI’s Mike Smith and Richard Huddy. Mike is the Manager for Developer Relations in the United States, while Richard is the Manager for Developer Relations in Europe. These two guys devote much of their time to being technical evangelists, preaching the gospel of these new technologies everywhere they go.
While it can often be difficult to introduce developers to these new technologies, both Mike and Richard enjoy the challenge of educating developers on where technology is going and how it will affect the titles that they are developing. While the industry has changed and its focus has moved more toward the artistic talents, it is still their job to instill a level of confidence and excitement among the developers to help them visualize how these new advancements in technologies can benefit them. Naturally, this is no small task.
This stuff is complex, and developers have to be willing to spend time learning about this technology. If you are a programmer, this might be a little new because it really is like sitting in a classroom and listening to the teacher.
We had the chance to talk to Mike and Richard for a short time at Mojo Day, and to ask some rather pointed questions about the past, present, and future of technology. They did their best to give us insight into Mojo Day and why it is important, and they answered some questions on what we can expect to see in the future.
THG – So, tell me a little more about Mojo Day, and what you guys are trying to do here.
MS – Today started out as an event where we could assist Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 developers that we don’t see regularly, getting them all into one room so that we can provide all of the information possible to develop software titles for DirectX 9 and Radeon 9700.
THG -Obviously, this is really important, especially with the developments in DX9 and all the pixel shaders. Now seems to be a really critical time to get the message out to developers.
MS – That’s right. It’s key that before the DX9 releases we help to make sure that these guys all know how to implement DX9, especially the vertex shaders for the 9700 and other products. We’re not just focusing on the 9700 here, which is a very important message to get out to your readers.
THG – We were hearing from your colleagues at NVIDIA that it was going to be several more months still before we would see really good per pixel-shaded games.
MS – Well, it took so long for developers to get good DX8 shader support out that they are basically applying that same time frame to DX9, but it’s not the same. You can go from the 1.4-pixel shader model to the DX9 model fairly easily. You just have to make sure your application compiles under DX9, and it’s some small changes after that to support 2.0 shaders. ATI will assist ISV’s with the shader code and implementation.
THG – One of the things that amazes me is that this is the dawning of a new development cycle. Things that were not possible are going to be possible just because of the sheer power of the card, and the brute force that it offers.
RH – It’s going to be amazing. The special effects that can be done now with 2.0 shaders are amazing, not just on the pixel side, but also on the vertex side.
Yes, even Richard Huddy teaches developers how to better optimize their code.
Mike Smith And Richard Huddy Talk Mojo Day, Continued
THG – Can you give us some examples of that? What is pixel shading buying you? What kind of effects are we going to be able to see?
MS – The best way to pick that up is to look at the samples that we are going to be showing during the day. Jason Mitchell showed a lot of material at SIGGRAPH, which is available now from the ATI Developer web pages.
DS – So, we are talking like fur, skin, and hair…
RH – With a graphic quality that isn’t possible with conventional texturing, yes. I looked at the SIGGRAPH slide set and thought, okay, what sort of frame rate does it run at? And when you see it on real hardware you realize that it runs at colossal frame rates.
MS – With 2.0 shaders, the current fur, skin, hair, and bump effects become more realistic with the developer having much more control.
DS – Right! When we talked earlier, we talked about the hotbed of European developers. A lot of the best games that are being developed are coming out of the U.K., aren’t they? I don’t think a lot of people understand that.
RH – ATI takes this very seriously, which is why they contracted Code Mafia to assist with Developer Relations in Europe. U.K. ISVs get development assistance in the same time zone. Answers are provided the same day for all developer inquiries. There’s an assurance that all of the support you need as a developer is there, locally. It’s really important.
MS – And it’s not just Europe. ATI provides global Developer Relations support. We’re supporting developers in Korea, Japan, Australia, Russia, etc.
THG – When you talk about supporting the developers, what kind of support can you offer them? I mean, do you guys get dirty and help them debug the code or figure out why problems have occurred?
MS – We go on site to assist with technical issues and feature implementation.
RH – Yes, we go on site. We write shaders with them. The truth is that a programmer is much more likely to hold onto the shader if it is developed in front of his eyes, or if he types the code in. So it’s productive to go on site, sit down with them, work through their code, give them a clear understanding of what the opportunity is, help them develop the shader so it is theirs, they have ownership.
MS – This is a perfect opportunity for us to stress our backing for open standards. We don’t want to see proprietary implementations out there that are going to cause more work for ISV’s. Hence our unequivocal support for Microsoft’s HLSL. We want to see support for DX9, DX8.1, GL 2, and GL 1.4, depending on how far they want to go.
Mike Smith And Richard Huddy Talk Mojo Day, Continued
THG – Speaking of OpenGL, I was looking through the materials and I notice there is a tremendous focus on DX, rather than on OpenGL. Where do you stand on the OpenGL now?
MS – We are strongly behind OpenGL 2.0. We will have beta drivers and the same type of information that has been seen at Mojo Day. This information will be publicly released on our web site. Our SDK will have an equal amount of OpenGL information as there is for DirectX 8.1 and DirectX 9. It’s also worth noting that the OpenGL ARB has asked ATI to be directly involved in the development of the next-generation high level shading language that’s going to be adopted in OpenGL 2.0. We’re working hard to ensure that only truly open standards define the next generation of graphics development.
THG -One question that I get from a lot of people is, if they want to start playing with programming at home, are there resources available, do you guys provide resources for those who might want to write their own shaders or learn how to write their own shaders?
MS – We don’t turn anybody away. We may not be able to seed everyone with hardware, but if they are developing something that is very interesting, we will help them out, even making sure that they have the right hardware to make their project successful.
Darn right, they don’t turn anyone away who wants to learn about the technology, but this stuff is no joke. If you have never programmed before, be warned that this stuff is not for the timid, that is for sure.
RH – All of the material is available on our public web site, and there is also support for beta drivers.
RH – The teaching material is publicly available. So any developer who wants to get hold of it, we just push it out there. It’s purely a constructive approach. It’s about freeing the information up. There is a staggering amount of information and material that we are presenting here, and all of the information and material will find its way onto that web site in a short period of time.
THG – Something that was really interesting in the Radeon 9700 rollout presentation is the RenderMonkey technology. That’s pretty amazing. It seems to me that you can get instantaneous feedback. Can you talk about how RenderMonkey is going to change the way that people develop software, or how you envision that it might change the development of software?
Mike Smith and crew relaxing later that evening in the Velvet Lounge at the end of the Mojo Day reception.
MS – One of the most important things is that middleware and engine developers can integrate RenderMonkey into their tool set. They can develop their own 3DStudio Max and Maya plug-ins specific to their tool sets.
THG – That’s great.
RH – For the professional developer, you can sit down with the artist and the programmer can tamper with the code on the spot. The artist can say, “No, that’s not what I intended, do it this way.” The artist can even get in and change the variables that the programmer wishes to expose. So, it is a really collaborative environment.
THG – So, how soon will we see this?
MS – It’s being done right now.
RH – There are development houses, which are using it in its beta format.
THG – I was under the impression that people were going to wait until it was further along before they were going to start using it.
MS – That is true, in some cases. Someone doing OpenGL 2.0 must wait for this support to be completed, but anybody who is developing with DX8.1 or DX9 can use RenderMonkey now.
THG – I appreciate your time. Thanks.
What Do Developers Have To Say About Mojo Day?
Developers are an interesting lot and very busy people. We wanted to spend some time talking with them to gain their perspective as to where things went at Mojo Day. Since this event was very developer-oriented and we did not want to dominate their time, we limited ourselves to five questions. We asked the same five questions of each developer. We wanted to see if we would get different answers from different developers. We found some of their answers to be quite interesting. We are very excited about the new titles that are in the development pipeline, and after this discussion. it is great to realize that these developers are likewise excited about the technology. This will, of course, lead to better titles. We wanted all of them to talk about the new titles on which they are working, but because these developers do not know the time frames for marketing and PR, for the most part they declined comment. This is very understandable, since from their perspective it is better to err on the side of caution.
You might remember ‘meeting’ Rex Sikora (Manager, ISV Business Development) from our Quakecon coverage, but it would not be fair for Rex to jump right into these interviews without talking a bit about what he does at ATI. Rex is a Technical Evangelist who spends most of his time working with and supporting the developers. Supporting developers is a full-time job, and Rex and his team put in many long hours making sure that the developers have access to everything that they need.
Rex serves as a conduit for developers who have requests or need access to special support. Rex has been doing this job for a long time (over two years, which is considered a lifetime in this business) and has built the developer relations from a small part of ATI’s overall strategy to a force within the industry that is pivotal to the adoption of new technology. Rex is really the one person who should get the credit for helping THG get the interviews with these developers, and it was his personal relationships with these developers that allowed us to have unprecedented access to talk with them. Normally, because of company rules, developers don’t talk with the press, but on this occasion and with Rex’s help, we were able to get them to answer a few questions for us.
Fox Interactive – Michael Heilemann / VP – CTO
THG – There continues to be a lot of discussion about pixel and vertex shaders. What kind of effects are really possible with this kind of technology?
MH – With the new 2.0 vertex and pixel shader standard comes greater power on the GPU. With this power, features that used to be implemented on the CPU can be shifted to the GPU, freeing it up for other uses, such as AI and Physics, which have traditionally gotten a smaller portion of cycles. Some of the features we will be pushing to the GPU are the animation and skinning of models, shadows, lighting, bump maps, depth of field, particle systems, reflection/ refraction, and specular effects. I am sure we will come up with many other stunning visual effects that will bring our games to life after we have had more time to examine and experiment with the new capabilities.
THG – Many consumers continue to complain that the speed at which hardware technology is changing continues to push the envelope, but that it is taking longer and longer for the software to catch up. Do you think that the hardware technology is moving so rapidly, and the software development cycle is so long, that software developers are kept unable to use this new technology until the next development cycle?
Developers spend time learning, and that is what Mojo Day is all about.
MH – The new graphics technology is being updated every six months at this point, with significant enhancements to functionality. With development cycles on games taking from 18 to 24 months for top titles, it is no wonder that it is difficult to keep up with the hardware. When projects are started, it is difficult to determine what the minimum specification should be for the game, not to mention to predict where the graphics technology will be two to four generations from completion.
MH – Hope is not lost, however. There are a couple of things that can help developers create cutting edge rendering technology for the latest generation of graphics chips. One is high-level shader languages. They allow for effects to be quickly created and debugged. The other is the help of the graphics chip manufacturers, themselves. No one knows the ins and outs of the hardware like they do, and with their help you can get up to speed on the capabilities of the latest rendering technology quickly.
MH – Flow control, functions and other advancements to the shader specifications make them easier for developers to use and increase productivity.
THG – How do you think that ATI Mojo Day is a benefit to you and your team?
MH – Yes, it is a benefit, because it helps us know what is coming in the next generation of hardware. The sooner we know what’s coming, the better we can plan for its arrival.
THG – With all the defection of software developers to the console market, do you believe that PC gaming will return to its past glory with the introduction of all these new hardware technologies?
MH – This is an interesting question. I don’t think that any one factor has caused the PC market share to decline, nor will one single factor increase it significantly.
MH – Console games are quite different to develop than PC games, and many a developer has made the mistake of underestimating that challenge. Having the same hardware on every machine, and not “shooting at a moving target” is a big advantage. On the other hand, the learning curve, control scheme, memory and performance constraints make it more difficult.
MH – Fox Interactive produces both, PC titles like Aliens vs. Predator 2 and No One Lives Forever 2, and console titles such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Simpsons Road Rage. When we determine which platforms to support, we look at the Intellectual Property content, the genre of game we are to create, who our target audience will be, and the developers capabilities, and make the decision after weighing those factors.
THG – From the strictly programming point of view, do you really see any real-world performance gap between Intel and AMD CPUs? Does either one have a real edge when it comes to writing software? Do you use the same code on both, or do you optimize for each CPU brand?
MH – With the cost and length of development continually increasing, it is becoming more difficult to optimize for a specific CPU. I have not run any extensive tests on either new architecture, but from what I have read, I do not see any huge advantages to one over the other.
MH – We will generally use the same code on both brands of CPU, and look first for algorithm, data arrangement and cache inefficiencies to speed up our code. These usually give greater gains, in less time, across multiple platforms, than specific low-level optimizations. When that is not enough and we need more performance, then we will look for specific optimizations to increase the speed to our target levels.
Bioware – Jason Knipe & Peter Woytiuk
THG – There continues to be a lot of discussion about pixel and vertex shaders. What kind of effects are really possible with this kind of technology?
JK – Pixel and vertex shaders allow for much more open-ended features. It’s really hard to say anything specific about what kinds of effects are possible, because people are thinking of new shader applications all the time. That’s the beauty of programmable shaders.
PW – Just about anything you can imagine. We’re still limited when it comes to intensive frame buffer and post processing effects (on any card), but the fact that they’re even possible is a big step forward.
THG – Many consumers continue to complain that the speed at which hardware technology is changing continues to push the envelope, but that it is taking longer and longer for the software to catch up. Do you think that the hardware technology is moving so rapidly, and the software development cycle is so long, that software developers are kept unable to use this new technology until the next development cycle?
The developers do have a chance to relax at the end of the day at the Velvet Lounge reception.
JK – I think that there will always be some lag between the release of new hardware and software that actually makes use of that hardware. It can be disruptive to the art pipeline to interrupt the process with new technology, and it’s therefore often convenient to wait until a later project and/ or implementation of graphics engine technology before going wild with shaders. I don’t believe that the gap between hardware and software is increasing, but rather that the software is, and will likely
remain, just a few steps behind.
PW – Part of the problem is that new technology needs new tools to be used to its full extent. Normally, programmers must climb the learning curve to design tools for artists, and then artists must then learn how to use these new tools – this obviously takes time. Software, such as ATI’s RenderMonkey, that gets released alongside new hardware simplifies this process, giving developers a head start.
THG – How do you think that ATI Mojo Day is a benefit to you and your team?
JK – It exposes us to ideas that we may not have come up with on our own. It gives us a chance to meet with the ATI team and with other gaming developers. The gaming industry, like any other, benefits from an exchange of ideas, and that’s what events like this are really about.
PW – ATI’s Mojo Day is excellent for building relationships and meeting other like-minded people in the industry.
THG – With all the defection of software developers to the console market, do you believe that PC gaming will return to its past glory with the introduction of all these new hardware technologies?
JK – I believe (and hope) that PC gaming will not die. PC gaming and console gaming really are different experiences. When I sit down in my computer chair and grab my mouse, I’m not looking for the same kind of game as when I lounge in my recliner and grab my console joystick. The games are different; the environment is different. I don’t mean to suggest that there isn’t any overlap between PC and console games, but I do believe that there are some games that are better played on a PC, just as there are games better played on a console.
PW – I don’t think there’s been any real ‘defection’ one way or another – companies have gotten smarter and are choosing to diversify their projects in the face of the uncertain economic times.
THG – Strictly from the programming point of view, do you really see any real world performance gap between Intel and AMD CPUs? Does either one have a real edge when it comes to writing software? Do you use the same code on both, or do you optimize for each CPU brand?
JK – I like to stay away from vendor wars. [Smiles.] I decline to comment on this one.
PW – I don’t see any major performance differences between AMD and Intel. As far as CPUs go, we have a single code path that operates on both.
Ninjaneering – Andy Mitchell
THG – There continues to be a lot of discussion about pixel and vertex shaders. What kind of effects are really possible with this kind of technology?
AM – Instead of selecting from a fixed menu of capabilities for features such as lighting, everything is now under our control. We’re free to develop things no one has seen before. Vertex shaders off-load the CPU to make things like high-resolution shadows and higher order surfaces practical in much of the scene; they also open the door for more complex lighting calculations, such as refraction and nonlinear surface properties. Check out the ocean water effects in many games released next year, for example, and you’ll see an incredible difference compared to last year. Pixel shaders give us the ability to do a vast array of non-photorealistic rendering effects, of which ‘toon’ shading is just the beginning, along with image post-processing using filters of various kinds, and high-dynamic-range lighting effects. Our imaginations are now the major limitation.
The fur demo was a big hit with the developers, and this is just one good example of what can be done using pixel shaders.
THG – Many consumers continue to complain that the speed at which hardware technology is changing continues to push the envelope, but that it is taking longer and longer for the software to catch up. Do you think that the hardware technology is moving so rapidly, and the software development cycle is so long, that software developers are kept unable to use this new technology until the next development cycle?
AM – Arguably, the major change in the DX9 generation is one that will address this issue directly — support for higher-level languages when developing effects. This will bring the same advantages that moving beyond assembly language did for programming the CPU: code reuse through abstraction and modularization, easier maintainability, shared libraries of effects, and tools that shorten the development cycle. While it may take a year or two for this to be fully embraced by developers, I definitely believe it will help us bring games that make use of new hardware technology to market faster.
THG – How do you think that ATI Mojo Day is a benefit to you and your team?
AM – ATI gave us hands-on experience with a suite of new tools under development that we can leverage so we won’t have to build our own in-house. Meeting ATI’s engineers face-to-face helps establish relationships that we’ll rely on in the future as our needs evolve, or if we encounter any problems. And networking with other developers is always a plus when you’re a growing company.
Mojo Day is an excellent chance to learn about the technology and how to get it into your projects.
THG – With all the defection of software developers to the console market, do you believe that PC gaming will return to its past glory with the introduction of all these new hardware technologies?
AM – Absolutely. The DX9 generation of hardware (e.g., Radeon 9700) is letting us do things that aren’t possible on consoles yet, such as realistic lip-synched facial animation, and pixel effects applied to video streams in real time. We develop Internet games which center on player chat to build the social experience, and this is still painful and awkward on the current generation of consoles. Each new console release seems to bring predictions of the death of PC gaming, but in practice, the cutting edge stuff always shows up first on the PC, while the consoles play catch-up.
THG – Strictly from the programming point of view, do you really see any real world performance gap between Intel and AMD CPUs? Does either one have a real edge when it comes to writing software? Do you use the same code on both, or do you optimize for each CPU brand?
AM – They’ve been competing extremely closely. We use a mix in-house for development, to help identify any differences early. We like the fact that Microsoft works closely with both companies to optimize their DirectX libraries — that largely frees us from the need to do platform-specific graphics optimization. The coming shift to 64-bit CPUs will bring a new wave of competition, and we’ll have to watch to see whether it changes the cost-benefit equation for CPU-specific code paths.
Talking Radeon 9700, GameCube and Drivers With Joe Chien and Terry Makedon from ATI
One thing that is unique about Mojo Day is we had access to people that we don’t normally have a chance to talk with – in this case, it was Joe Chien and Terry Makedon, who are the software people behind the hardware.
I think that everyone pretty much knows by now how excited we were with the release of the Radeon 9700, from our article entitled ATi Radeon 9700 PRO – Pretender To The Throne. THG’s Lars Weinand concluded that “ATi has earned itself not only the performance crown in gaming environments, but also that of the technology leader!” What we having been seeing however, in email and in discussions within our THG Community Forums, is that many of you are still concerned about the drivers and software that make up part of the 9700 equation.
Thanks to Chris Hook at ATI, we were able to have an exclusive chance to have a “no holds barred” discussion with Joe and Terry about these subjects. We asked some difficult questions regarding the drivers and consumers’ perceptions about ATI drivers. We also received news of a new beta program that is coming soon.
In addition, Joe talked some about his work on the GameCube project and the driving force that was behind the development of the 9700, which was an effort from the West Coast design team, rather than the East Coast design team.
After this discussion, we are even more convinced that ATI has a deeper and more genuine commitment to driver development than ever before, and if drivers are the only reason that you would not consider the purchase of an ATI product, it seems you had better re-think your position. Terry and his team know they have something to prove, and they are working very hard to deliver drivers that should not only increase in performance over time, but become some of the most stable in the industry, as well. It is hard to argue with men on a mission, so read on to see what they had to say to us.
THG – Can you guys tell me who you are and what your responsibility is at ATI?
JC – My name is Joe Chien, and I am the Director of Software Engineering, responsible for the Radeon 9700 software and the drivers.
TM – I’m Terry Makedon, and I’m the Senior Product Manager of Software on the Marketing side. CATALYST Software Suite is one of the products which I am responsible for.
THG – I find it interesting that the industry has come to the point where we actually have to have a product manager for the drivers. I think there has been a perception in the past that the drivers have been a weak point with ATI. And that is just not the case anymore, is it, Terry?
TM – Absolutely not. For any of your readers that do not know, we launched the CATALYST software suite a few months ago. CATALYST is the family name for ATI’s software, which includes our graphics driver software, our MULTIMEDIA CENTER (which includes DVD, and TV players), HYDRAVISION (our multi-monitor software), and our REMOTE WONDER software (to use our remote control for your PC).
With the CATALYST launch, we have an unparalleled level of commitment to things that our customers tell us matter the most. Those are what I refer to as the CATALYST attributes, and they include things such as performance updates, stability, new features, and usability. In fact, CATALYST is focused on seven attributes. These are all based on the feedback that we are getting from our customers, whether it be OEM customers or the end users. We have decided that we are going to make the strongest commitment to provide the best software suite available in the marketplace.
The elements and attributes of the CATALYST Software Suite.
Talking Radeon 9700, Continued
Another note is that the frequency of updates for the drivers was important for our users. So, we made a commitment to provide eight to ten driver updates per year. Ever since we launched CATALYST, it is actually a six-week cycle that we are on. We are on CATALYST Version 3 right now, and we have hit our schedules to the day as planned. So, the entire software organization is working toward that six-week cycle. We want to post new drivers and introduce new bug fixes, performance boosts, new features, or what have you, as frequently as makes sense.
Having said all that, the trick is to find the delicate balance of all these attributes that ensures the driver will be of value to the most users as possible. For example, we can focus one driver release to just introduce new features, but not improve performance or increase stability. That, in my mind, is not acceptable. I would prefer to issue a driver that has some new features, as well as some new performance, as well as some new stability. To illustrate the example, look at an excerpt from the latest release notes included as part of CATALYST 02.3 posting:
You can see that this driver set provided:
- Performance Improvements;
- New Features;
- Stability enhancements;
- User-Friendliness.
All as part of a unified driver set, which is fully certified from Microsoft. And this was made available just six weeks after the previous CATALYST driver was posted.
ATI’s commitment to improve driver performance over the long run. (Benchmark information in this graph was provided by ATI as part of their Mojo Day distribution materials.)
THG -In your presentation on the Radeon 9700, I found it really interesting how far the technology has come, and at what speed. Three years ago, we thought that what you are doing now with the 9700 wasn’t even possible. You mentioned the parallel development teams. I think our readers would like to know a little about why it is so important for the parallel development teams to hit the design cycles.
JC – The industry has a natural pulse that revolves around six-month cycles. OEMs update their products on this basis. This is driven by the buying patterns of the users. The way we did it was to have two design teams, one on the East Coast and one here on the West Coast, in Silicon Valley. The Silicon Valley team is the same one that worked on the Nintendo GameCube.
THG -So, that is the ArtX folks?
JC – Yes.
TM – As a matter of fact, Joe actually did work on the Nintendo project himself.
THG – Really?
JC – Yes, I was responsible for wrapping up the Nintendo chip effort.
THG -That’s pretty amazing!
JC – And then, after the Nintendo project, we shifted to the RADEON 9700. The complexity in designing such a chip is that the verification and the performance must always be kept in mind. So, we need to have the driver work with the simulation/ emulation ahead of time, so that when the chip comes back, everything is ready and all they have to do is test it.
Talking Radeon 9700, Continued
THG – You have brought up the GameCube and the ArtX teams. Just now this is really starting to show. Our readers say that some amazing things are being done software-wise. I just saw the new Mario game, and the StarFox game. For some of our readers, that is just a little simplistic. But on a pure graphics level – does it surprise even you what the developers are doing with the technology?
JC – With the level of technology, we just need to continue to educate people on how to enable those technologies. Actually, the Nintendo team in Seattle does the software effort. We provide them with our chip. But there is a lot of functionality, and Nintendo has spent a lot of time working with the ISV community to educate people on mapping, how to do different things. Yes, Mario SunShine is a very good example. When you look at it, it is just amazing what they are doing with GameCube on the software side.
THG – Right. But does it surprise you? Has it exceeded what you thought the chip was capable of yet?
JC – I think there is still potential. But with every game, 18 months is about the cycle. So, it would take at least a year to get people familiar with the new hardware. Look at PS2. It’s a very good example. The first year, nobody knew how to program for that console. After a few years, people really know how to program PS2. It’s the same thing with Nintendo. Nintendo, actually, is much easier. As an example, one of the PS2 games took just five days to port over to the GameCube platform. For the R300 today, the porting and new feature usage is a lot easier. We’ve gone through several cycles of education and usage with the community, with development of associated tools. Events such as today’s Mojo Day show our willingness to educate the developers on the advanced technology of our graphics cores.
THG – We touched briefly on the 9700 and how advanced the 9700 chip is. You talk about education being so important in getting this message out to the developers. You said that software developers are really just starting to learn now how to program 3-D graphics and how to do it well. How long do you think it is going to take before we start seeing advancements in the DirectX 8.1 and DirectX9-style games that are going to really push this card?
JC – I think it’s always one generation ahead, but the industry is catching up much more quickly than in the past. On the development side, developers are using the capabilities of DX8.1 this summer all the way for Christmas games. DX9 games will likely come out, assuming Microsoft hits its schedule, next year. The DX9 games are going to come out around summertime 2003. At that time, we will see many mainstream chips support DX9 features. That’s also important.
Look at the card that you see being presented in this picture. With DX9 technology, it will be possible to present images like this one. We can’t wait until titles that use DX9 are on the shelf and ready to buy.
THG – We talk about that a lot with ATI, about your commitment to waterfall the technology and bring it down to the consumers. Right now, you are responsible for the teams designing these chips. If a consumer is building a high-end system right now, do they need to go ahead and buy a card that is committed to DX9 right now? Is now the time to buy?
JC – Definitely! DX9 has a long lifetime. Combine that with the R300 performance advantage for all DX7 and DX8 games. We are the first one to have DX9 parts out. At ATI, we actually worked with Microsoft from day one to help define DX9. Then, we designed the chip toward that. So, it’s a long-term relationship with Microsoft, and we are fully compliant with DX9. So, it’s very safe to buy now and then look forward to the future DX9 Games.
TM – It’s definitely an investment in the future, because with the Radeon 9700, today you are playing all available games at the highest possible image quality and performance. So, as far as an investment for the games that are coming soon and a year down the road, you still have the most advanced technologies supported, such as DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2.0, as well as AGP 8X, with incredible performance levels and image quality. Anyone debating whether to purchase one or wait around a while simply needs to look at the image quality available on the 9700 and at how smooth any game looks.
JC – I think people are really amazed with the Radeon 9700 R300 using DX7 games or DX8 games; they can enable other features and still run it, maximize it at 100 frames per second, 1600×1200 internal, 6 AA. That’s really good quality. I think people are really satisfied with that capability in terms of performance.
Talking Radeon 9700, Continued
THG – I find it interesting that I hear from developers and other people in the industry that there is so much excitement around the fact that the new parts are going to support floating point, the GPUs. In some ways, the GPUs are becoming more complex than the CPUs, if not more so. I think floating point is something our readers would like to know more about. Can you touch on floating point, and how it is going to impact the development and the products?
TM – I will give you a very good example. In this room, you have a light. The fixed point will give you a zero to one range, but with floating point you can actually add the light from the sunshine coming in from outside, so the range can be much greater. With fixed point, you have a really small range to work with. If you have floating point, the scenes come through as very realistic. And that’s our goal: to make it as close to reality as possible. I really hope one day we can get to the point where we say, is this real, or is this a photo?
THG – And that is the ultimate goal. You know, Terry, we talked a little about the drivers. I’m sure my readers would be really angry if I didn’t ask you this. You talked about ATI’s commitment, but some people are still apprehensive. The Radeon 9700 has tested well, the reviews of it have been really hot, and we love it. One thing we didn’t talk about is the CATALYST Feedback Program. Can you talk a little bit about how that is working, and about how you work with people to ensure the quality of the drivers?
TM – Sure! For anyone who may not know the history, this is a program called the CATALYST CREW. The CATALYST CREW was launched along with the CATALYST initiative. Basically, it is an online submission mechanism for people to report bugs or, just as importantly, to provide us with suggestions for features. As an example, when we launched CATALYST, we had an issue with one game, Grand Theft Auto 3, in which the fog in the game was rendered too thick, making it difficult for users to see the road clearly. With the CATALYST CREW submissions, we noticed this particular item was the number one thing being reported. So, we turned around and worked with our development team, issued a fix immediately in about a one to two week turnaround. Without the CATALYST CREW feedback, there would have not been an easy way for us to know what our users needed addressed first. What we’re doing now is very exciting. We are getting thousands of submissions! Every time we post a driver release, we get an average of 3,000 to 5,000 submissions about it from our end users, providing us with feedback about either improvements or things they would like to see in the software suite, or just issues they may have with particular games. We have a back-end system in our customer support department, which is database-driven, that takes these submissions, orders them and prioritizes them.
THG -It’s key to tell people that you are tracking every submission that comes in. So, it’s important that the readers know that these submissions are not just going into an abyss.
Oh yes, and later back at the Velvet Lounge it was time to unwind and watch the show, after a hard day of being breifed on all of this technology.
TM – That’s correct. Not only do we track every submission that comes in, but we also read each and every one! We also have had feedback for the Radeon 9700, as Joe can attest to. There was an issue and lockup in a couple of new games that weren’t released yet (people were using the demo versions). But when we saw these reports coming in, Joe was able to get his engineers to fix the problem, and we quickly issued a patch before these games even shipped. We absolutely look at and read every single submission that we get. They come to me in a weekly report, and then I set the priorities for the next month or so based on the information that I am getting. We always encourage people to use the CATALYST CREW feedback program, and to not be shy in asking for new features. The greatest way for me to develop the road map of our software is the end users. If they tell me that this is a feature they would like to see, I would really like to know about that. We already had one big contest for the CATALYST CREW, where the winner was flown up to ATI and got to meet all our top executives (not to mention that the winner also got one of the first RADEON 9700s ever built). Stay tuned; we may have more exciting contests coming up!
TM – Also, what I want to mention is that the six-week cycle and the six-week Web posting cycle that we have, these are not beta or unsupported drivers. These are fully Microsoft WHQL certified, supported by ATI, driver sets. We do not post drivers that have not passed Microsoft certification. It’s not ATI issuing drivers that are “betas,” where you have to go ahead and take your chances, but drivers that we support 100% and whose quality we stand by.
Obviously, there are other mechanisms for us to get user feedback on beta drivers, and this might be a good time to announce that one of the things that I am looking at is an official ATI Beta Program, where people register and are selected based on their qualifications. ATI would provide them the software, the drivers, the Hydravision and the Multimedia Center before they are ready for public consumption, and then use some sort of formal Beta feedback mechanism. I know of a lot of companies that have beta programs for their applications (such as games or even Microsoft), but I have not heard of a hardware company providing a beta program for their drivers and other software. Let’s be clear here, we are once again paving new ground here. We will have a full, formal Beta Program for our drivers, which is unheard of. More details to follow in the coming months. I encourage all your readers to visit mirror.ati.com to stay on top of CATALYST happenings!
THG – That’s revolutionary in the business. It’s something that I think is long overdue. The drivers are becoming such an important component in the whole cycle now; it is just horrendous.
THG – That’s great. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me on Mojo Day.
RenderMonkey – An Exciting New Tool
In our opinion, the true high point of Mojo Day was ATI’s in-depth presentation and training on their new RenderMonkey tool. Most end users did not pay too much attention to ATI’s announcement of RenderMonkey, because the application is targeted at developers. We believe that RenderMonkey, in fact, will be able to fill a critical void and help developers get new titles to market more quickly.
One of the most unique aspects of RenderMonkey is the fact that it is not targeted to either DirectX or OpenGL. This means that RenderMonkey can be used with either, and in fact, it can be used for any type of graphics card. RenderMonkey is not graphics card or API specific, which means that it is of great value to developers. When talking with developers at Mojo Day, they were excited about RenderMonkey, and the most often asked question was, “When is the RenderMonkey Software Development Kit going to be available?”
The mission of RenderMonkey is to create an environment that is language agnostic, allowing any high-level shading language to be supported via plug-ins. Of course, by doing this, it will aid in the adoption of shaders in applications.
The computers sit ready and waiting for the start of the RenderMonkey hands-on session.
ATI devoted a special breakout session, complete with computers (each packing a Radeon 9700), to allow the developers the chance to learn how to use RenderMonkey to develop shaders in their own titles.
What was amazing to see is the flexibility that RenderMonkey brings to the table, and over the course of this session, we saw developers already able to use RenderMonkey to develop shaders.
We think what was possibly most impressive is how easy RenderMonkey makes the interaction between the developers and the art folks. In the past, this has been a problem that needed to be addressed, and via plug-ins, it is obvious that RenderMonkey can be molded to fit any type of development environment. Again, this is what being language agnostic is all about, and it was nice to see ATI able to back up this talk with deliverables, in this case, RenderMonkey. RenderMonkey is only the first step, and ATI already has development on the way for more tools for software developers, to be released in the coming months.
We wanted to go straight to the source and talk with someone about RenderMonkey. Who better than the ‘father’ of RenderMonkey himself, Callan McInally, who manages the 3D Applications Research Group at ATI? Prior to Mojo Day, we were not even aware of the existence of a 3D Applications Research Group at ATI. Not to say that we were so naпve to think that such groups didn’t exist at ATI, but normally we don’t have access to these folks because they are too busy ‘developing’ to come out and talk about what they are doing. This was an excellent chance for us to get a peek into the world of internal ATI development.
Interview With Callan McInally – The Father Of RenderMonkey
THG – Why don’t you just start by telling us who you are and what your responsibilities are at ATI?
CM – My name is Callan McInally, and I manage the 3D Application Research Group.
This group really does a lot of interesting software algorithm development from an application perspective. We get to play with the hardware before anyone else; we get to write the demos, and also to look at the challenges that the developers are likely to face as we are rolling out new hardware. We use this experience to develop tools and technologies that make it easier for developers to take advantage of new features.
THG – Would it be safe to say that you are the ‘father’ of RenderMonkey, then?
CM – Yes. — Although I am only a small part of a talented development team.
RenderMonkey in action, showing the Fire demo.
THG – It seems pretty obvious to the media that RenderMonkey seems to be one of the more pivotal tools that you are very excited about. It seems to be able to give very quick feedback to the developers, providing them with something they haven’t had before. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that?
CM – My group has been working on writing shader applications for a couple of years now, ever since ATI first got into developing shader hardware with the Radeon 8500, when that was first being developed. We’ve spent a lot of time on the road talking to developers, getting people’s feedback, and it became very apparent to us that there was just a huge “hole” with the existing tools. Companies like Microsoft either didn’t see the opportunity or weren’t prepared to put the resources into making this happen. This was one of the barriers that was stopping game developers from being able to take advantage of the latest hardware. Hardware with shader support has been out there for some time now, and you saw this morning at the developer event when there was a show of hands how many people are putting shaders into the titles. Maybe four or five people in a room of 200 people we have there, even two years after shader hardware has been available. A lot of it has to do with the fact that shaders are hard to write. Even if you have a guy who is capable of writing shaders and understands it within the context of hardware at that level, taking what he has done, and getting it working within the concept of a game, is difficult. It’s a lengthy process. You need to get artists involved in the process of integration. You need to have not just a hard-core graphics guy doing the code, you also need to have a really good artist who understands what that program is doing and how he can work with it. So, there is a whole suite of people who need to be involved in the process.
THG – Let me stop you there for a moment. You say that shaders are difficult to write, and do you think that that is part of the reason why the adaptation of pixel shaders has slowed down?
CM – They are not difficult to write, there are enough smart graphics guys out there who can write this stuff. It’s about workflow. It’s, how does that guy fit into the rest of the game development workflow. How can you take what he is doing and make it useful and relevant to the rest of the game development team? That’s really the challenge. Historically, let’s assume that you have a guy who can write this stuff in his sleep. He’s a hard-core graphics guy, he can dream up shaders and come into work in the morning and say, “Hi, guys, look at this really cool thing I did.” If you actually look at the process for what that guy has to do , he has to work with a pretty primitive tool set, he has to run his editor of choice, he has to run a command line tool, he has to work with somebody else to get the shader integrated into the engine. Then he finally gets to see what the shader looks like, and it’s not quite right. So he has to go back around and do that one again. That takes a while. It’s a lengthy process. Then, once he thinks he has it right, he has to hand it off to the other people, the guys who are going to take that and integrate it into the actual game. They will say, “Okay, we like this shader, we want to use it in this title, now how do we integrate it into the game? How do my artists, who are using 3DS Max or Maya, actually take the shader and apply it to the models, and how does it fit into my export path? That whole process is just a complete mess. It’s a complete nightmare, and it requires the game development guys to make a very business-conscious decision and to say, “We want shaders in this title. It has to be done for business reasons, and we are prepared to justify you guys spending two months sorting out all of these problems and making the workflow much better.” Those business reasons haven’t been there in the past, because until ATI shipped the Radeon 9000 Series, there hasn’t been enough mass-market hardware out there at that volume level to allow people to justify the cost.
Historically, the way ‘cool’ technology gets into games in advance is, you have your hard-core graphics guys who live and breathe this stuff, who will go home on the weekend and come in on Monday and say, “Hey, guys, I’ve solved all these problems. Look what I’ve done. You can put all of these solutions into the game.” It’s there, it’s done, and no one has to commit any valuable resources to solving the problems. The problem with shaders is that there are so many challenges and so many people that have to be involved in the process that it became a much harder problem to solve. That’s really what we have tried to address with RenderMonkey. We are saying, “Let’s make it easier for all of these hard-core guys who love the technology to do this.”
RenderMonkey in action again, this time with the terrain demo.
Interview With Callan McInally – The Father Of RenderMonkey, Continued
Since we have some of those guys working on the demos at ATI, we also wanted to be able to take the work that we’ve done and make it easy for game developers to reuse it in their titles. RenderMonkey makes this a lot easier than it was 12 months ago.
We knew that game developers would love RenderMonkey as a shader prototyping tool. It’s a great tool for providing instant visual feedback. You can see changes happening as you are doing them, so we knew people would use it to write shaders. What we weren’t sure of was, would game developers embrace it enough that they would pull it into their workflow, and would they write more tools that plug into RenderMonkey to do their custom stuff? Again, that comes down to the game developer saying, “We are prepared to buy into this, and will put some valuable resources into making this tool part of our workflow.” The number one request we have had since we launched this thing a month ago is, “When can we get the SDK? We love this, but we have our own custom widgets that we want to add into it. We have our own tools for doing some of this stuff already, and we want to put them in this framework, because we love this way of dealing with the workflow.” That’s very satisfying for us as the tool developers, because it tells us we’re on the right track.
THG – What has the reaction been from the developer community over RenderMonkey? It seems to me that this is a quantum leap forward, because there is no alternative that exists.
CM – People say to us, “Why hasn’t anybody done this before?”
It really just took us saying, “Look, we see all these problems. We have these problems when we are doing OUR work. Let’s make OUR lives easier, and make everyone else’s lives easier at the same time.”
One of the problems we have had with RenderMonkey is that, because we have designed it to be so flexible and so extensible, it makes it hard to say, “This is what it is. It solves this problem, here it is in a box. Here is your solution to this problem.” Which isn’t the case, since it is a multi-faceted solution and it can solve many different problems, some of which we haven’t even imagined yet. Because of the way we have designed it, people can extend it and move forward. I can’t see where RenderMonkey will be two years from now. We don’t know.
THG – You mentioned the SDK for RenderMonkey. When is that going to ship?
CM – We are planning on releasing it in the middle of October.
THG – And when you release the SDK for RenderMonkey, how much documentation will there be? If one of our readers just wanted to pick up RenderMonkey and learn how to use these shaders themselves, after all, this is free and open to play with. There is no prerequisite, other than you would have to be willing to invest some time, right?
CM – Yes. As we ship it, RenderMonkey comes with reasonable introductory documentation as to what the tool is, and talks people through the various user interface components. By the time we ship version 1.0, there will be a lot more documentation and many cool examples. The shader workshops we are doing today are also part of that process. These take developers beyond understanding what the user interface is and basically what the tool is all about, and on to, “How do I use it to actually do stuff? How do I use this tool to create a shader?” Natasha and Drew are going to be talking people through actually creating the shaders in a workspace and evolving a shader over time.
THG -This is very important. It shows how much support ATI is trying to give to teaching and supporting the developers and helping them be creative and have ownership, so that they can go back to their people and really move this forward. That’s the key, right?
CM – We use the old adage: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” With RenderMonkey, we’re teaching developers how to fish, and also including a free fishing rod, as well!
Teaching the developers to fish using RenderMonkey.
THG – Regarding training and examples, I don’t think you ever envisioned being in the training business, did you?
CM – Well, it’s always been a part of what the group does. We exist to be that leading edge and to push the hardware into new algorithms and new techniques. Not for our own gratification, but to be able to take them out into the development community and say, “Hey, guys, look, this is what is possible. This is what you can do.” Talking to people and teaching them has always been a part of what we do. But RenderMonkey just makes it so much easier. Historically, the guy who is going to go and talk about a particular hardware feature would write a whole application. A good example would be Jason [Mitchell]’s procedural wood sample. He wrote a standalone application to showcase that, because we didn’t have the RenderMonkey stuff available.
Interview With Callan McInally – The Father Of RenderMonkey, Continued
Now that we have the DX9 version of RenderMonkey, we added the procedural wood example to it in a day. Jason saw the example and said that he would never write his own applications again, that he would use RenderMonkey for all of his applications. That’s been a typical reaction.
The training function that we do is also a two-way thing; we get a lot of valuable feedback from developers when we talk to them. RenderMonkey is helping us to get much better feedback from developers. It is opening the door so that we are getting the developers talking to us about their processes and their workflow and how we can help that. Historically, we’ve had a lot of smart guys (in the 3D ARG at ATI) doing demos and presentations, which is great, but we were not getting the level of feedback that we want in order to allow us to solve developers’ problems for them. We are starting to get that now. RenderMonkey has opened that door. They can see that ATI is really committed to doing development tools. We have developed RenderMonkey and have shown that it is an open thing, it works with everybody’s hardware, we’ve made it extensible and flexible, we’re not tying developers to any particular API, and we are openly asking people how we can make the product better, move it forward, and solve the problems of the future.
THG – Speaking of feedback, I don’t want to put you on the spot, but what are your impressions of Cg? It seems like NVIDIA would have us believe that this is such a revolutionary idea. But it seems that the developers are all saying that it is the same old, same old, and why do we need another high-level programming language?
CM – I would say why do we need a proprietary high-level language when there are perfectly good, non-proprietary ones available? That would be my response, and I don’t think I need to say anything other than that.
Chris Hook: Obviously, David, we are here today talking about open industry standards with Microsoft and Intel. I think we have made ourselves very clear. I think some questions have been raised about how Cg and Microsoft HLSL are compatible today, and if they will always be compatible.
THG – That’s something that is important for you to point out to people. This is not tied to any graphics API.
CM – Jason sort of alluded to this in his presentation this morning. Microsoft has a long track record of producing tools for developers; Visual Studio and their compiler technology are excellent, and Jason showed today how good they already are with their HLSL compiler. NVIDIA doesn’t have the same track record. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to compete. I would be very surprised if they could compete at the same level as Microsoft. If I was a developer, and I was choosing between a company with a track record in compiler technology (i.e., Microsoft with HLSL) and NVIDIA with Cg, it would be a no-brainier. That is also what the developers are telling us.
THG – How far along are we on the road to seeing titles that have pixel shaders in them?
CM – This Christmas there will be over 100 titles coming out that have support for DX8-class hardware features. A lot of developers have stayed away from it until now because it’s been hard, or they haven’t been quite able to do what they want with it. With DX9 and the 2.0-shading model, this is it. This is the one that they will embrace and move forward. By Christmas this year, there will already be a few titles that support DirectX 9, and by Christmas 2003, it will be on shelves everywhere.
THG – Is there any reason why anyone should not consider buying a Radeon 9700 this Christmas?
CM – Any game developer who has a title that they are shipping next year should have a 9700 on his or her desk right now. For the game consumer, absolutely, the Radeon 9700 makes today’s games run faster and at higher resolution and quality – plus, it will support all the great titles coming out in the future. I’ve seen some of them, so I know it’s worth it.
Chris Hook: Something else, David. ATI will soon have pixel shader support for the integrated market. This will mean that if you can afford a basic motherboard, you can afford pixel-shading hardware. That’s all the more incentive for game developers.
CM – The other thing that we were trying to do with RenderMonkey was to make this technology accessible to the mainstream game development community, not just the hard-core 3D guys. If you look at the top-selling titles, you’ll see games like “The Sims” and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” I want those guys, even if they haven’t got a hard-core 3D guy, to still be able to take shaders and try to put some of those effects in their games.
THG – This sounds really exciting. It seems like RenderMonkey is going to open up a whole new world to these guys. Callan, I thank you for your time. That was really interesting.
Conclusion – ATI Is Committed To Supporting Developers
If nothing else, it became clear that ATI is committed to supporting the efforts of developers. The support of developers with more than just talk is something that needs to be taken seriously, and ATI is backing it up with the education and tools that developers need to get the job done. (RenderMonkey is a very good example of how they can provide tools and solutions to make life easier for developers.)
Events like Mojo Day are essential to give developers the education and tools to capably deliver the software necessary to push these new graphics card technologies to the limit. We were very impressed with ATI’s efforts at Mojo Day. From our discussions with the developers in attendance, this is the kind of support that is needed to deliver on the cinematic graphics experience that we all crave in next-generation software.
Let’s not forget the ATI Mojo dancers that we saw later at the Velvet Lounge; that always helps keep the developers’ attention.
Developers don’t need marketing hype, they need hard-core examples and hard-core education to be ‘sold’ on the value of implementing these new technologies into the titles. They need to be able to do this cost effectively and quickly, with no major loss in productivity, in order to make their preferred choice when laying out design plans for a new title.
With the ATI Mojo Day event, ATI has done an excellent job of stripping away the hype and providing good solutions to difficult problems. With the API ‘agnostic’ nature of their message, they allow developers the freedom to create without having to profess loyalty to one camp or the other. The job of software developers is to create, and anything ATI can offer that allows more new and innovative titles to be released is good for the company, which should lead to increased sales. Creativity is what Mojo Day is all about, and it is a highly recommended opportunity for developers to get the real scoop, without the marketing hype normally associated with such events.
