Wave Issue 9610 10/11/96 Article 5-01

***Softimage Shapes 3D Acceleration Market with Certification
by John Latta

3D acceleration is essential to the use of Softimage 3D on Windows NT
systems. To make sure that its product worked well with accelerators and
integration problems were not being passed to users Softimage created its
Hardware Certification Tests (HCT), now in version 2.1. The suite of
tests is really a benchmark which tests parameters important to the
production use of Softimage and some specialized feature tests.

There are two separate tests: Softcomp, which are script based and
focused on determining that the combination of the hardware and
accelerator will properly drive the Softimage product, and Regression
Tests, which are run by Softimage personnel to determine the
compatibility of the accelerator. The HCT process has a number of steps
which is split between what the IHV does first within the IHV's own
facility and then a trip to Softimage in Montreal at its certification
lab. This latter step usually requires an experienced engineer for 2
weeks on site. The IHV must also supply an OpenGL driver. When the
process has been complete an official certification is issued.

The Softcomp test has 8 sections which are run with two separate batch
files. Areas which are tested include: NURBS, Bezier curves, keyframing,
lighting, textures and wireframe handling including animation. A factor
often ignored by many 3D accelerator companies is that most of the
processes in Softimage are done on wireframes. Thus, the performance of
the accelerator in handling meshes may be more important than the
polygonal performance. In addition, Softimage takes the view that the
OpenGL driver, the display driver, must focus not on blitting bits but on
the processing of pixels. The process of certification has benefited the
manufacturers: one found a bug in the hardware and most ended up tuning
their drivers. Companies currently certified include:

3Dlabs 300SX
500TX
Accel Graphics AG500
Densan (For NEC) 300DX/A
Digital Equipment Corp. Powerstorm Series
Dynamic Pictures Inc V192
Intergraph GLZ1
GLZ2
Realizm Series
NeTpower Elite2
Omnicomp Pro8
DTX88

Note that these certification results do not apply to all combinations of
operating system versions and the Softimage software versions. For
example, only the Intergraph Realizm Series is certified for Softimage 3D
3.51 and NT 4.0. Check with Softimage for the detailed list not only for
the current combinations but also additional companies which gain
certification.

The Softimage HCT is an excellent example of how benchmarking is shaping
3D accelerator development and the market. Passing the tests is a gate to
the reseller channel and those with the best integrated and performing
platform have an advantage.

www.microsoft.com/Softimage