PCG130.cover_nv 30/10/03 2:37 pm Page 13 THE WAY It’s Meant To Be Played Ultimate PC gaming with GeForce FX XIII The hard cel PCG130.cover_nv_2_3v3 3/11/03 12:38 pm Page 2 Contents 03 06 07 07 08 09 10 10 11 11 12 15 GeForce FX 04. The Way It’s Meant To Be Played 06. Russian developers 14. Media Center 15. The Future Network plc is a public company. Produced by Printed in the UK © Future Publishing 2003 All images and materials are property of their respected owners. All Rights Reserved. Future Plus 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BANES, BA1 2BW GeForce FX GPU pictures © NVIDIA Printed by Cover picture © 2003 Ubi Soft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Ubi Soft and the Ubi Soft logo are trademarks of Ubi Soft Entertainment in the US and/or other countries. Precision Colour Print, Telford www.dargaud.com <http://www.dargaud.com> 1/Le Jour du Soleil, NoiraDARGAUD BENELUX, (DARGAUD-LOMBARD), BRUXELLES, 1984 by Vance & Van Hamme ➔ 2 PCG130.cover_nv_2_3 30/10/03 11:23 am Page 13 from dawn to dusk Bring the games to life NVIDIA is committed to delivering blistering performance and incredible visuals, and making PC gaming as easy as possible. This is the way it's meant to be played… he ‘NVIDIA: The Way It's Meant games for NVIDIA's hardware, ensuring T To Be Played’ (TWIMTBP) consumers benefit from full programme is a collaboration between compatibility, stability and reliability NVIDIA, NVIDIA's hardware partners, when playing the hottest games and the world's finest game developers today. It's one of the key reasons why and publishers, and is designed to give NVIDIA® GeForce™ graphics processing consumers the ultimate out-of-the-box units (GPUs) provide the perfect experience. platform for PC gamers worldwide. NVIDIA works directly with game So what do you need to do to make creators, providing the hardware and sure you get the ultimate software tools that make it possible to 'install-and-play' experience? First of all, create compelling game content, such look for the TWIMTBP seal on games as realistic life-like characters and and NVIDIA-powered PC hardware, and breathtaking cinematic environments. secondly, make sure that you have an With NVIDIA's Unified Driver NVIDIA GeForce FX graphics processor Architecture, the gold standard in the powering your PC, so that you can play industry, NVIDIA also tests and works games the way they're meant to be with game developers to optimise their played. NVIDIA TECHNOLOGY DEMO: DUSK Dawn ushered in the dawn Dusk's skin is a custom of cinematic shading with fragment shader that the introduction of the includes shadowing, diffuse NVIDIA® GeForce FX family and specular colour, bump- of GPUs. Now, her twin mapping, plus a simple sub- sister Dusk shows us what's surface scattering effect. Her possible with the GeForce FX hair is comprised entirely of 5900 series of GPUs. geometry and is only possi- An urban, moonlit street ble due to the high-perform- is Dusk's stage as she relaxes ance vertex shaders of the to music outside a club. She GeForce FX 5900 GPUs. dances to the beat, getting Together, vertex and the attention of her nocturnal fragment shaders allow for friends of the forest, who an anisotropic lighting join her before flitting into model, resulting in extremely the night. realistic hair. Visit NVIDIA online. UK: www.nvidia.co.uk US: www.nvidia.com 3 ➔ PCG130.cover_nv_4_5 30/10/03 11:54 am Page 12 The way it’s meant to be played NVIDIA reinforces its leadership of the GPU market with two new high-performance additions to the GeForce FX family. ith the arrival of its Geforce FX process floating- point shader operations complex shadowing, also comes as W GPUs, NVIDIA introduced the twice as rapidly as in previous GPUs. standard. And with second generation technology and tools that enable Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 optimisations NVIDIA® Intellisample™ high- games developers to create a new have also been implemented, alongside resolution compression technology, generation of graphically advanced complete support and compatibility for the GPUs remove the jagged edges games software. Now, with the launch the OpenGL® 1.5 API. using easily the industry’s fastest anti- of the GeForce FX 5700, GeForce FX The new GPUs also introduce the aliasing techniques. 5700 Ultra and GeForce FX 5950 Ultra NVIDIA® CineFX™ 2.0 engine, which Expanding on the foundation of GPUs, NVIDIA’s takes graphics offers increased horsepower as well as the NVIDIA Unified Driver Architecture, performance to new levels. more advanced pixel and vertex the GPUs also embrace the new Making use of faster clock rates shader control for a range of ever NVIDIA® ForceWare™ unified software (courtesy of 0.13 micron process), AGP more complex effects. NVIDIA® environment (USE), which delivers the 8X and true 128-bit precision through UltraShadow™ technology, a system industry’s highest visual quality and the entire pipeline, the GeForce FX for enhancing performance of performance to GeForce GPUs, while 5700 and GeForce FX 5950 Ultra GPUs bleeding-edge titles that rely on enabling users to take advantage of cutting-edge technologies like HDTV and DirectX 9.0 ForceWare’s robust set of display and desktop management utilities allow users to customise their Microsoft®Windows® desktop. Forceware also ensures the delivery of a compelling out-of-the-box experience for the user, by utilising just one driver for all products, which continually benefits from performance The newest members of the GeForce FX family – the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and GeForce FX 5700 GPUs – takes graphics performance to new levels. and feature updates. I Utilises advanced NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 memory technology, including DDR2. I Delivers 3x the vertex processing power over previous generation. I Delivers 2x the Dominate your games with floating-point pixel shader the power of the NVIDIA power. I GeForce FX 5700 GPU. NVIDIA CineFX 2.0 Powered by the advanced engine. I NVIDIA Ultra-Shadow NVIDIA CineFX 2.0 engine technology. and backed by NVIDIA® I NVIDIA Intellisample ForceWare® unified high resolution software environment compression. (USE), the GeForce FX 5700 I NVIDIA ForceWare delivers high-performance, software for unmatched cinematic gaming features and stability. I experiences, unmatched Microsoft DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL 1.5 support. features, and an absolutely rock-solid stability so that you can play your game ‘The Way It’s Meant To Be Played’. ➔ 4 PCG130.cover_nv_4_5 30/10/03 11:54 am Page 13 from dawn to dusk Alongside their formidable 3D NVIDIA Demo: Last Chance Gas capabilities, the two new GPUs also offer standard-setting display feature- sets and performance. Dual 400Mhz RAMDACSs support dual QXGA display at resolutions up to 2048x1536 and refresh rates to 85Hz. There’s DVI Demo: Vulcan support for flat-planet displays up to The GeForce FX 5950 Ultra GPU turns 1600x1200 resolution, plus television up the heat in this technology demo. Vulcan, the god of fire, toils at his output up to 1024x768 resolution via anvil forging the metals of the earth an integrated TV encoder. Video when one of the sparks of his forge takes flight. Angered, Vulcan These are stills taken from the Last The light and shade plays on the facilities include full-screen, full-frame Chance Gas station demo. building creating amazing depth. attempts to crush the annoyance but rate hardware MPEG-2 decoding and it’s too quick. He chases it all around Equipped with a GeForce FX 5950 shader used to describe the light his sanctuary to no avail, as he's too DVD scaling up to HDTV resolutions. slow to vanquish the pest. Tired and Ultra, interactive real-time cinematic based on sun position, haze, and Crucially, the FX 5700, FX 5700 dizzy, Vulcan makes one last attempt effects can be seen for the first time other environmental factors. The to get rid of the pest, but he is at the Last Chance Gas station. high-performance fragment-shader Ultra and FX 5950 Ultra are also overcome with fatigue and he begins Watch the sun rise and set over pipeline and vast amount of texture architected so game developers will to fizzle out. The demo features realistic fire, the desert landscape and gas memory also allow for a new level be able to create and implement smoke and glow, using volumetric station. Walk around and practically of detail and realism, so objects cutting edge special effects faster than texturing and render-to-texture feel the heat shimmer off the remain realistic even upon close techniques. Next-generation lighting ever before. The way it’s meant to be abandoned roadway, and the glare inspection. And a more realistic and shadowing with multiple light sources add further visual drama, of the sun flare out over the pools lighting environment is created played has never been a more while Vulcan himself is amazingly of shadow with true-to-life shadow using global illumination combined appropriate mantra. And as you read created using a true Blinn phong and lighting effects. Observe the with soft shadows. through the rest of this magazine, shader. volatile sky as it brightens, changes These effects are truly providing you’ll see how this ethos is being used colour, and fades with the cinematic quality visuals, the like of to create some of the most amazing, movement of the sun, and look for which have never been seen. In the changing shapes in the clouds. turn, the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra original and innovative gaming Last Chance Gas features delivers the most immersive experiences that have ever been seen procedural sky, with a fragment gameplay ever experienced.