Introducing Warp3D NovaShader based 3D graphics are finally a reality!A-EON Technology Ltd is pleased to announce that a native 3D Shader-based API has been developed for OS4.
Warp3D Nova has been the result of over nine months of hard work by graphics guru and
AmigaDeveloper.com Team member, Hans De Ruiter. It offers significant opportunities for exciting advancements in 3D software running on the AmigaOS4 platform.
Why is Nova needed?The original Warp3D API is over a decade old, and as a consequence, is not based around Shader technology and many related functions that modern graphics cards support. Modern 3D engines require Shaders and having this support on OS4 will remove more obstacles to porting games and applications from other platforms. To further ease porting from other systems, we have contracted Daniel Muessener (GoldenCode.eu) to develop an
OpenGL ES 2.0 wrapper for the new Warp3D Nova.
In addition to the coding talents of Daniel, we have been in contact with other prominent 3D developers from across the Amiga community and provided them with early access to the software.
Warp3D Nova Features- A modern shader-based 3D graphics API for use by 3D software running on the AmigaOS 4 platform
- Supports vertex and fragment (pixel) shaders giving developers great freedom over lighting models, effects, vertex transformations, etc.
- Hardware accelerated Transformation, Clipping & Lighting (TCL) is implicitly supported (programmed via shaders)
- Uses the SPIR-V standard for shaders. A GLSL to SPIR-V compiler is included
- All rendering is done via Vertex Buffer Objects (VBOs) which can be stored in VRAM for high performance Render state stored in Render State Objects (RSOs). Having no global state avoids state thrashing, and allows multi-threaded rendering. Note: While there's no global state, a default RSO is allocated for convenience
- Includes an SDK with everything needed to start writing apps & games including examples ranging from querying hardware capabilities through to per-pixel lighting with normal mapping
- Can co-exist with the original Warp3D-SI & MiniGL
Special thanks go to Andy Broad for developing the
glslangValidator tool.
Requirements- AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition or newer
- A supported Southern Island* series graphics card with GDDR5 RAM
- Radeon HD 7750-7970 series
- Radeon R5 230/235/235x
- Radeon R7 250x/265 series
- Radeon R9 270/270x/280/280x
(*Not compatible with HD7790 or Southern Island graphics cards with DDR3 RAM)
Warp3D Nova libraries, SDK and tools
