Ecosystems of the World
3:45 pm
CNN on Drilling the relief wells
3:22 pm
Maurice Panisch’s amazing CG Car Images
3:00 pm
Maurice Panisch has a fondness for high-end cars and spends his time turning his skills into beautiful CG renderings that are indistinguishable from real photographs.
Check out his amazing portfolio for some incredible images.
Water Management – United States
2:52 pm
NVIDIA officially announces Microsoft RemoteFX Support
2:00 pm
NVidia has caught up to AMD in support for Microsoft’s RemoteFX product. If you haven’t heard of RemoteFX before, it’s best described as another version of VNC & VirtualGL. In a corporate environment, you currently must deploy some type of GPU at each workstation, particularly if you want decent performance under Windows Vista or Windows 7, which can drive up costs significantly and cause a bit of an administrative headache from the power and cooling requirements which may cause systems to fail a bit faster than desired. With RemoteFX, you can deploy thin clients that access remotely available GPU hardware.
That’s where NVIDIA and Microsoft RemoteFX come in. Enabled by server-discrete-GPUs, this solution will move the corporate user’s PC workload into the server room, and then IT managers will service those users’ PC requirements with anytime/ anywhere, secure access that is IT friendly. RemoteFX, combined with NVIDIA Quadro GPUs, will enable the full Windows 7 desktop experience including rich and 3D media for very low cost ‘thin’ clients from anywhere on a company’s network.
Not exactly new technology, Microsoft has had their Terminal Services product for a while and VirtualGL can do this today via VNC (for Free even), but it’s nice to see some major commercial entities acknowledging this use in something more than a hack. Lo0ks like right now it’s only for Quadro products (Which makes sense, this is a somewhat high-end tool meant for professional use), but no information on what the differences will be between the AMD version and the NVidia version. My guess is nothing, except the NVidia version will enable CUDA-type applications.
Sony Unveils New 3D-Capable Cybershot
1:00 pm
Sony has unveiled a new Cybershot camera that holds the title of ‘World’s Smallest 3D Camera’. Coming in 3 models, it seems to have a single lens capable of shooting 3D photographs that can be viewed with the Sweep Multi Angle screen in 3D.
“Sony is focused on being the leader in 3D technology leveraging its expertise to create the best 3D products contents and unique entertainment experience ” said Kelly Davis Director of the Digital Imaging Business at Sony Electronics. “Sony is making it easy to create personal 3D content that can be enjoyed with friends and family on compatible 3D television systems.”
Like all modern digital cameras, it also shoots video but I can’t find any information on if it can shoot 3D Video. Price tags of around $400 would seem to indicate probably not.
via Sony Unveils The World’s Smallest 3D Cameras ~ MobileHuntz.com.
Jon Peddie on Multi-Screen Visualization Systems
12:00 pm
A nice writeup from graphics analyst Jon Peddie covers the growing market of large-scale visualization (multiple-screens) and does a great job drilling down to the main reason why they’ve become so popular recently:
In the past, circa 1990, large-scale visualization systems were built by Evans and Sutherland, SGI, and various military contractors like General Electric, Lockheed, and Mechdyne. These systems sold for $100,000 to a few million dollars. The costs were due to installation, and low-volume state-of-the-art equipment such as high-resolution bright projectors, large powerful workstations, and custom software.
Today, it’s possible to replicate those expensive systems for under $20,000 (not including physical installation and modifications.) And that brings me to the thesis of this discussion – the amazing visualization capabilities offered today on the PC from AMD and Nvidia.
Systems like EyeFinity are really making this more attractive for users, and anyone who’s ever used multiple display can vouch for the amazing impact it can have on your workflow: The extra screen real-estate makes multitasking and cross-program workflow a breeze.
However, I really loved this sentence later on.
I’ve been testing the systems in our lab using COTS simulation programs otherwise known as FPS games. I’ve run FPS simulation programs on a six monitor API system, and S3D FPS simulation programs on an Nvidia S3D surround system. In both cases, I was extremely satisfied with the performance and the only complaint was the size of the bezels.
I can just imagine a *wink wink* *nod nod* throws in there for good measure.
NASA Copies Americas Army with Moonbase Alpha
11:00 am
A new free download popped up on Steam last week called ‘Moonbase Alpha’, using the Unreal engine to create a short game where you attempt to repair a crippled lunar base. The project is an experiment by NASA to see if they can raise interested in the Space Program the same way America’s Army is used in military recruitment.
“It started as an effort to prove we could create a commercial quality game using NASA content that is fun. NASA was looking for a project at the same time the Army Game Studio was looking to branch out from America’s Army. It helped that Army Game Studio and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center are co-located at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. Virtual Heroes has a history for with America’s Army so we were excited to see them selected to support the Army Game Studio on the game.”
The entire game can easily be completed in 20 minutes, putting it squarely in the ‘proof of concept’ category. However, this is the testbed for what NASA eventually wants to build: A full blown MMO.
VisMag Volume 3: Isometric and an Interview with Chris Watson
10:00 am
To celebrate the 3rd volume of ‘Visualization Magazine: Isometrics‘, Cool Infographics interviews the author Chris Watson to discuss how the magazine came about, how he works with the multitude of designers, and the future of the mag.
Cool Infographics: What’s your favorite Isometric visualization?
Chris Watson: *smile* I’m not sure, its partly the reason I put them in a mag. There are various aspects of all the different ones featured.
For instance I love the abstract creative nature of Eboy. It’s a very graphic design (I trained and teach graphic design). They might not communicate specific info with a clear message or comparison like an infographic, but I love the visualisation of the websites into abstract non-physical (i.e. the world wide web/digital) space. Like the Web Trend Map, it takes the Internet from a conceptual space to an impression of absolute almost physical space.
The width dimension with the stacks for stability in the Web Trend Map is so good.
In addition, Cool Infographics is holding a twitter contest to give away a copy of the book to a lucky reader. Hit his site for all the details.
NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 460
9:00 am
We have told you recently that NVIDIA would soon be releasing their GeForce GTX 460. This new graphics card will not be based on the same chip, the GF100, that powers the GeForce GTX 480 and 470. Instead this card will be using the GF104. The question that has been left unanswered, until now, is how would the new graphics card perform?
Anandtech as posted a two part review of the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460. In the first part, they look at the architecture of the new graphics card, and then run benchmarks on it. In the second part, they take a look at the different cards that the vendors are offering. So how does it perform? Take a look at the quote below for your answer.
Today NVIDIA is back in the saddle with something entirely new: GF104 and the GTX 460. The second member of the Fermi family is ready for its day in the sun, and in many ways it’s nothing like we expected. Designed from the start as a smaller chip than GF100, GF104 is the basis of the GTX 460 line of products which fix the GTX 465’s ills while delivering the GTX 465’s performance. It’s what the GTX 465 should have been, and it’s priced as low as $199. And as we’ll see, it’s the first NVIDIA card in a long time that we can give a glowing review for.
via NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 460: Part 1 @ AnandTech
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