The ZBuffer : GDC05 Day 1

GDC05 Day 1

Firstly let me apologize for the lack of an update on Tuesday. It would appear that the free "wireless" internet in my hotel is not as "wireless" as I thought. After spending last night cycliing through the 10+ wireless networks I could find, I discovered a cat 5 cable on the desk which works quite nicely.

You will also have to ignore any spelling or typing errors since I have had a few beers and I'm typing on an extremely small laptop keyboard with my extremly fat fingers. Its also quite late and I got up very early to register which was a waste of time since game developers obviously don't get up early and there was nobody in line but me at 7:50am.

So on to the GDC. The most depressing thing is that nobody knows or cares about managed code. I've mentioned it to a few people and they look blank. Some people have heard of someone who is using it for some tools but its very obviously nothing important. So those of you who read this should know that you are either pioneers or crazy people. I don't think the game community is ready for it yet - people I have talked to are skeptical that it would ever be fast enough. I point out that they used to say the same thing about C and then C++ but it doesn't impress anyone. None of the exhibitors have any plans for managed APIs, which I understand. If the community they serve isn't interested then why produce the code.

Things to report:
I attended a session on the NVidia GoForce 3D 4500/4800 which is the mobile chip that will be in cell phones and PDAs. I have no idea what the connection is to the Mobile Managed DirectX mentioned here because the NVidia rep didn't talk about DirectX at all other than a cryptic comment about a "future" version. Read into that what you will! The chip supports a DX8 model, with no shaders and no hardware lighting. But it does have hardware transformations and texturing and up to VGA resolution. So go back to where 3d technology was 5 years ago and you will be about right. They talked about mass market in 2007 so there is plenty of time to be thinking about this area.

Its almost 1am now so I will sign off and send another update tomrrow.


Search ZBuffer News Articles Downloads Links FAQ Blogs/People Games Applications Technology Game Engines Tutorials Books Game Dev Tools Resources Forums About Advertise Contact ZMan Privacy Partners Ad Survey	GDC05 Day 1 GDC05 Day 1 Firstly let me apologize for the lack of an update on Tuesday. It would appear that the free "wireless" internet in my hotel is not as "wireless" as I thought. After spending last night cycliing through the 10+ wireless networks I could find, I discovered a cat 5 cable on the desk which works quite nicely. You will also have to ignore any spelling or typing errors since I have had a few beers and I'm typing on an extremely small laptop keyboard with my extremly fat fingers. Its also quite late and I got up very early to register which was a waste of time since game developers obviously don't get up early and there was nobody in line but me at 7:50am. So on to the GDC. The most depressing thing is that nobody knows or cares about managed code. I've mentioned it to a few people and they look blank. Some people have heard of someone who is using it for some tools but its very obviously nothing important. So those of you who read this should know that you are either pioneers or crazy people. I don't think the game community is ready for it yet - people I have talked to are skeptical that it would ever be fast enough. I point out that they used to say the same thing about C and then C++ but it doesn't impress anyone. None of the exhibitors have any plans for managed APIs, which I understand. If the community they serve isn't interested then why produce the code. Things to report: I attended a session on the NVidia GoForce 3D 4500/4800 which is the mobile chip that will be in cell phones and PDAs. I have no idea what the connection is to the Mobile Managed DirectX mentioned here because the NVidia rep didn't talk about DirectX at all other than a cryptic comment about a "future" version. Read into that what you will! The chip supports a DX8 model, with no shaders and no hardware lighting. But it does have hardware transformations and texturing and up to VGA resolution. So go back to where 3d technology was 5 years ago and you will be about right. They talked about mass market in 2007 so there is plenty of time to be thinking about this area. Its almost 1am now so I will sign off and send another update tomrrow. Updated 3/29/2005 11:26:00 PM by Zman