CODEPLAY RESPONDS TO NVIDIA®'s 'CG'

~~David~~ · Jun 17, 2002, 07:18 PM

In the future, graphics hardware will incorporate both low level pixel and vertex shaders as demonstrated by NVIDIA® and higher-level general programmability as demonstrated in the PlayStation®2. The Cg language is not sufficiently well specified for such hardware, particularly with reference to:

No break, continue, goto, switch, case, default. These are useful features that can be used without penalty on other vector processors.
No pointers. This is Cg's most serious omission. Pointers are necessary for storing scene graphs, so this will quickly become a serious omission for vector processors that can store and process the entire scene or even sections of it.
No integers. This may be appropriate to NVIDIA®, but is not a universal design decision.
Arrays use float indices. This is an odd design decision, relevant to DirectX 8 and NVIDIA® only.
NVIDIA® have introduced Cg as a standard, fully backward- and forward-compatible. However, the existence of reserved keywords (such as break and continue, mentioned above) is a clear indication that functions will be added when NVIDIA® hardware supports it. This is not conducive to future compatibility

http://www.codeplay.com/press/cg_rel.html

BAD NVIDIA BAD!!!

Jun 17, 2002, 07:18 PM	#1
~~David~~ Banned Join Date: May 2002 Location: Atlanta Posts: 959 Rep Power: 0	CODEPLAY RESPONDS TO NVIDIA®'s 'CG' In the future, graphics hardware will incorporate both low level pixel and vertex shaders as demonstrated by NVIDIA® and higher-level general programmability as demonstrated in the PlayStation®2. The Cg language is not sufficiently well specified for such hardware, particularly with reference to: No break, continue, goto, switch, case, default. These are useful features that can be used without penalty on other vector processors. No pointers. This is Cg's most serious omission. Pointers are necessary for storing scene graphs, so this will quickly become a serious omission for vector processors that can store and process the entire scene or even sections of it. No integers. This may be appropriate to NVIDIA®, but is not a universal design decision. Arrays use float indices. This is an odd design decision, relevant to DirectX 8 and NVIDIA® only. NVIDIA® have introduced Cg as a standard, fully backward- and forward-compatible. However, the existence of reserved keywords (such as break and continue, mentioned above) is a clear indication that functions will be added when NVIDIA® hardware supports it. This is not conducive to future compatibility http://www.codeplay.com/press/cg_rel.html BAD NVIDIA BAD!!!