IDF Day 2: Renee James: "Developing for the Future of Computing"
InTru3D, Silverlight, Moblin, Rage, and Visual Adrenaline
As a proof of concept of the capabilities of the technology, DreamWorks animators took what was already a difficult to render scene from Kung Fu Panda and re-rendered it, this time in 3D. The demo was conducted with the audience wearing polarized glasses and a pair of special projectors transmitting the image(s) onto a special screen. The effect was very impressive. Katzenberg wasn't done with the eye candy, however. Next up was a sneak peak of what will be the "first 3D, CG animated film," Monsters vs. Aliens, which is due in theaters on March 27, 2009. (We're including shots of the two clips; but they are obviously blurry as this is what the images look like when viewing them without the polarized glasses.)
The next technology that James highlighted was Silverlight. Joining James on stage was James Zander, the General Manager for Microsoft's Visual Studio, Developer Division. Silverlight is Microsoft's cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device, rich media plug-in. Silverlight works on both Windows and Macs, with Linux support coming soon. Zander said that Microsoft partnered with NBC to provide over 3,000 hours of high-quality videos from the Beijing Olympics, including a number of live feeds. Zander stated that developing for Silverlight is relatively easy, as it utilizes popular, existing programming tools, such as JavaScript, .Net, C#, Python, and Ruby.
James next brought out Doug Fisher, Vice President and General Manager for Intel's System Software Division. Fisher talked about the open-source Moblin developer platform for Atom-based MIDs. The goal of Moblin is to create a broad set of developer tools for creating applications and services for the Atom-based MID platform that utilize the Internet, rich media, visual computing, and to even add 3D and physics to the platform. Fisher said that in 2009 the applications will be much more visually compelling as a result of the ongoing Moblin platform development.
Switching gears, James brought out to the stage, John Carmack, co-owner and Technical Director of Id Software. Carmack showed a demo of the still-in-development, post-apocalyptic game, Rage. Carmack talked briefly about the different ways that the game utilizes threading and multi-core support.
The last tidbit of James's keynote was an announcement of a new developers' program for visual computing experts, called Visual Adrenaline. The initiative is meant as a community and resource pool for programmers developing games, video, and other visually-rich applications for Intel platforms, including Larrabee.
More IDF 2008 Coverage at HotHardware:
IDF Day 1: Pat Gelsinger Keynote: Embedded + Dynamic + Visual
IDF Day 1: Craig Barrett Keynote: "Inspiring Innovation"
IDF Day 1: David Perlmutter: "Where Will 'On-the-Go' Go?"
IDF Day 2: Anand Chandrasekher: "MIDs: Platform for Innovation"
IDF Day 2: Eric Kim: "We Love TV"