DirectCompute Lecture Series

Some DirectCompute lecture series are available on the web : here

"DirectCompute Expert Roundtable Discussion
Robert Hess has a roundtable discussion with industry experts to help you understand exactly what DirectCompute is and the kinds of software problems that you can apply DirectCompute to leaverage the GPU for computation."

GPU PRO code available

GPU PRO : Advanced rendering technique book make the source code of the articles available on the web.

From Geeks3d.com :
"To compile many of the examples you will need to install the DirectX August 2009 SDK
together with Visual Studio 2008. In the zipped file, the directory structure closely follows
the book structure by using the chapter number as the name of the subdirectory.

General System Requirements

To use all of the files, you will need:

* The DirectX August 2009 SDK
* OpenGL 1.5-compatible graphics card
* A DirectX 9.0 or 10-compatible graphics card
* Windows XP with the latest service pack; some require VISTA or Windows 7
* Visual C++ .NET 2008
* 2048 MB RAM
* The latest graphics card drivers"

 For Image processing the following topics are covered

Section 5 Image Space
5.1 Anisotropic Kuwahara Filtering on the GPU by Jan Eric Kyprianidis, Henry Kang and Jürgen Döllner
5.2 Edge Anti-aliasing by Post-Processing by Hugh Malan
5.3 Environment Mapping with Floyd-Steinberg Halftoning by Laszlo Szirmay-Kalos, Laszlo Szecsi, and
Anton Penzov
5.4 Hierarchical Item Buffers for Granular Occlusion Culling by Thomas Engelhardt and Carsten Dachsbacher
5.5 Realistic Depth-of-Field in Post-Production by David Illes and Peter Horvath
5.6 Real-Time Screen Space Cloud Lighting by Kaori Kubota
5.7 Screen-Space Subsurface Scattering by Jorge Jimenez and Diego Gutierrez

23 Years of ATI graphics card

It's a French review about ATI graphic card. Here

A guide to 3D display technology: its principles, methods, and dangers

An interesting article about 3D display. The theory, the tech, and the danger... Here

MeshMixer : Put a cow head to a human body in a second ;)

MeshMixer is an experimental 3D modeling tool.

The goal of meshmixer is to make it dead easy to compose new 3D models from existing meshes. You can cut, mix part of different 3Dmodels.

All the operation are done by easy drag and Drop operations. The only drawbacks is that the software only works on Windows.



 Here an example (Create a minautore from a Human Body and a Cow head) :

Additional Help : Here

Microsoft Natal becomes Kinect

Kinect is the new commercial name of Natal.

Some games will be available will the Kinect release :

Kinectimals : A game similar to EyePet or 3D tamagotchi where you will take care of your tiger. You will can be the animal or the master.

Kinect Sports : Foot, Bowling, Ping pong, Boxing, Beach Volley and more.

Kinect Adventures : A family game.

Your Shape Fitness Evolved : A fitness game with a virtual coach that will try to make you moving and dancing !

Forza 4 : A car simulator game where you will be able to pilot with your hand... Be careful of the arm cramp !

Dance Central  : A dancing game. (Developped by Harmonix, the creators of Rock Band)

I think "This is it" will be able with the Kinect technology also... So the moonwalk will be the next challenge ...

Source : jeuxvideo.premiere.fr

Aerial photography for all

This paper present an interesting approach to allow everybody to make aerial photography at low cost !
Balloon Based Geo-Referenced Digital Photo Technique

I want one !

Source : AnthSpace@PSU