PowerVR SDK 2.9 launches
// October 20th, 2011 // No Comments » // Tools and SDK
We are very excited to announce the latest revision of our PowerVR Insider SDK, one of the world’s leading and most comprehensive Graphics SDKs. Revision 2.9 is available now to download for free here: http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/insider/powervr-sdk.asp
Within the SDK we include a set of utilities to help with development, and demos and training courses that help lead the developer in understanding key parts of the tool chain. We have now expanded the SDK with the following content:
Platform Support
• LG Optimus 3D
• Android using Native Activity – Our Android SDK now uses the Android NDK, making it even easier to develop Android applications and create apks. Our SDK now targets Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) as a minimum.
Training Courses
• OpenGL ES 2.0 User Interface demo: Having a fast and responsive user interface is the key to a fluid experience. This demo demonstrates the best means of accelerating a UI within OpenGL ES on a mobile device, as well as thoroughly discussing possible optimizations of the effect for PowerVR hardware.
• OpenGL ES 2.0 Parallax Bump Mapping demo. The parallax bump mapping effect is one of the most advanced, and one of the most widely used bumpmap effects in desktop computing, this training course shows how to implement this effect in OpenGL ES 2.0 and how to optimize the effect for PowerVR hardware.
Demos
• OpenGL ES 1.1 Navigation3D demo. This is an OpenGL ES 1.1 port of our OpenGL ES 2.0 Navigation3D demo, which demonstrates how to optimally load and render real-world 3D navigation data using the SDK’s 3D navigation tools
Utilities
• PVRTrace: TraceGUI has been updated with an improved UI, giving more information per frame and features much improved loading times. Render state tracking has been improved significantly, and the recording libraries and GUI now record extensions. In addition to support for recording graphics API calls on Linux and Windows, the 2.9 SDK introduces Android recording libraries.
• PVRTune: PVRTune has improved support for the latest range of PowerVR GPUs, visualization of multiple render targets in the timing data, process IDs in the timing data, as well as new counters, and the ability for PVRScope enabled applications to send custom marks to PVRTune in real-time.
• PVRShaman: PVRShaman now includes a texture viewer window that allows you to see render targets updating in real time, graphical updates in the form of a view window grid and axis, as well as a considerable improvement in debug output due to improved PVRUniSCoEditor integration. On top of all of this we have a slew of bug fixes, and support for 3D Studio Max and Autodesk Maya user data.
• PVRTexTool: PVRTexTool now has a much higher quality PVRTC compressor, and supports dithering. Max and Maya plug-ins now support the latest versions (2012) on Windows.
• PVRTexLib: The library has been updated with the new PVRTC compressor and dithering as well, and a much anticipated feature – the library is now fully thread safe!
• PVRGeoPOD/Collada2POD: The POD exporter pair have a slightly improved UI, support for the exporting of 3D Studio Max and Autodesk Maya user data. In addition, the PVRGeoPOD plugins have been updated for the latest versions of Max and Maya.
On top of all of this we’ve improved 64bit support throughout, and completely rewritten the user manuals for PVRTrace, PVRShaman, PVRTexTool, PVRGeoPOD, Collada2POD, PVRUniSCoEditor, Filewrap, and PVRVFrame based on your feedback. New manuals for PVRTune, PVRVecEx, PVRTexLib and PVRScope are on their way. Full release notes are available here: http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/insider/sdkdownloads/whats_new.asp
Get the latest utilities and SDK at www.powervrinsider.com.
Regards, Bryce
