April 2016 – The theme for this years Nvidia GTC conference was focused on AI and cognitive computing dir Neural Networks. While these are a core of their new direction for their computing appliances (Nvidia DGX-1) and high capacity devices (Tesla P100), the mainstay of the company which is graphics compute for scientific and media content creation still got a number of advancements. The main item was the release of the updated Nvidia SDK which is currently available at https://developer.nvidia.com/ .
Nvidia Developer SDK at GTC2016
One of the long time anchors of the platform, for the existing and future GPU architectures is the Gameworks SDK. This module supports the PhysX engine, Core SDK, OptiX engine and the Visual FX engines. The major announcement was the support for the Krons Vulkan 3D API. The PhysX engine was updated for a new faster destruction model and capabilities for in game effects, and a new clothing engine that has faster more realistic fabric simulation and texturing. The OptiX engine brings real time ray tracing to the game development community. The VisualFX engines were also enhanced. The main updates were in the area of volumetric lighting for the DX11 shaders.
Nvidia VisualFX engines in GameWorks 2016
The DesignWorks area received a bridge to the VR market with the release of IRayVR in addition to the ProPipeline update. The NVIDIA Iray SDK provides a photorealistic rendering solution with a C++ API for seamless integration into 3D applications. The Iray SDK 2016.1 is the first release with Iray VR. VR is a new core tenant within Iray that will continue to advance as the product develops. The VR capability starts with the addition of VR cameras for spherical, cylindrical, and box views in split or combined stereo output. The VR cameras can be used during interactive sessions, like all Iray cameras, while rendering dynamic scenes with any of the render modes.
A new module in the SDK is VRWorks. VRWorks is a suite of APIs, sample code and libraries for VR developers. The suite is targeted to designers of VR applications for next generation of Head Mounted Displays, and professional VR environments like CAVES, Immersive Displays & Cluster Solutions. The VRWorks package has been developed to support high performance, low latency and plug-and-play compatibility across platforms. For game and VFX developers, the VRWorks module is being integrated in the Unreal Engine 4. Key features are Multires Shading; VR SLI for multi-GPU card support; Context Priority; Direct Mode for headset developers; Front Buffer Rendering; Warp & Blend; Synchronization that prevents tearing and image misalignment while creating one large desktop screen that is driven from multiple GPU’s using multiple technologies like Frame Lock, Stereo Lock, Swap Groups & Swap Barriers; GPU Affinity; and GPU Direct for video. The kits are available for multiple platforms including SteamVR/OpenVR from Valve, the Oculus Developer Portal and the OSVR Developer Portal.
While cognitive computing was the buzz word of the event, the legacy and core of GPU compute and VFX creation is still advancing and moving to new applications to also take advantage of the new GPU throughput capabilities.