ATI, graphics products group of Advanced Micro Devices, has finally allowed game developers to utilize its tessellation technology available in ATI Radeon HD 2, 3, 4-series graphics chips via OpenGL application program interface. In addition, AMD began to offer OpenGL 3.0 support in ATI FirePro professional graphics boards’ drivers.

“AMD’s implementation of OpenGL 3.0 demonstrates our commitment to delivering continued support for the OpenGL API, which is the API of choice for many CAD, digital content creation and scientific application providers,” said Janet Matsuda, senior director of AMD professional graphics business.

ATI introduced tessellation engine that can be programmed using vertex shaders back in the first half of 2007 along with the ATI Radeon HD 2000-series graphics cards, however, the technology could not be used via OpenGL API and has never been utilized via DirectX API by game developers. ATI’s tessellation technology allows creation of additional geometry by graphics processing units, which improves visual quality of video games.

“AMD has long been an active participant in OpenGL API standards work. Extensions, such as tessellation, allow developers to take full advantage of powerful ATI FirePro graphics accelerators that provide performance, stability and visionary innovation for graphics professionals. We look forward to future enhancements that will be available in OpenGL 3.1 and beyond,” said Ms. Matsuda.

AMD has published OpenGL extensions AMD_vertex_shader_tessellator and AMD_GPU_association as a part of its implementation of OpenGL 3.1 spec. These extensions enable improved performance scaling and parallel processing with multiple GPUs and enhanced scene realism through increased geometry detail.

Supported now with ATI Catalyst version 8.583 graphics drivers for ATI FirePro, OpenGL 3.0 marks its own milestone of re-invigoration of this cross-platform 2D and 3D graphics API. OpenGL 3.1 is the newest revision of this industry standard and was announced on March 24, 2009. In upcoming ATI Catalyst software releases AMD plans to continue to expand its support for extensions targeted at future versions of OpenGL, including OpenGL 3.1.

“As a graphics toolkit provider, Redway3d is committed to offering the best 2D and 3D performance to its customers in addition to product quality and stability that fulfill long life maintenance requirements. AMD’s OpenGL extensions such as tessellation help Redway3d support that customer commitment. The OpenGL 3.0 architecture on graphics accelerators such as ATI FirePro creates very promising value potential for the RED engine SDK with zero migration effort,” said Lionel Schmitt, chief executive officer for Redway3d.

OpenGL helps foster innovation and speed application development by incorporating a broad set of rendering, texture mapping, special effects, and other powerful visualization functions. Developers can leverage the power of OpenGL across all popular desktop and workstation platforms, ensuring wide application deployment.

Tags: ATI, AMD, Radeon, OpenGL, DirectX