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3D
Pipeline
Company
3D Pipeline performs
product design, and produces games, drivers, image processing tools,
specialty applications and contract research, with specialties in
OpenGL drivers and 3D games. They are located in La Jolla, California,
and have a sales office Sunnyvale, their original home until 1998.
In addition to 3D services such as application design, artwork, and
GUI design, they also offer research and problem solving.
On May 16, 2001,
3D Pipeline announced a strategic partnership with PurpleDrop, Inc.
Of the partnership, Yahoo News wrote, "The strategic partnership
between the two entities capitalizes on the strengths of each, 3D
Pipeline's high-end photo-realism, environment 'fx,' knowledge of
military equipment and capabilities married with PurpleDrop's creative
content powerhouse, marketing, sales and distribution forces." Their
inaugural project will be developing a cutting edge military helicopter
game for the PC, entitled "Metal Thunder: Conflict in the Caribbean."
Products
3DPipeline offers
a host of solutions that include products, services and contract
programming. We will highlight only several of the products - the
rest can be found on their Web site.
glAnalyze Pro
glAnalyze Pro
is an OpenGL driver that provides real-time information and control.
This allows a user to see what is going on inside OpenGL applications
without application source code. For example, glAnalyze enables
analysis of off-the-shelf games and applications to provide a glimpse
into how they work, what type of geometry they use, their hidden
optimizations, state changes, texture counts and details. The program
also allows the user to save the entire run (including texture
maps) to disk, and play it back later without the original application.
glAnalyze Pro is composed of three components: an OpenGL32 dll, a program
for pipeline control and data flow interception, and a playback application
that reads log files for replay. It was initially released in April 1999,
when 3D Pipeline decided to completely rewrite their OpenGL driver to provide
real-time information and offer complete control of OpenGL applications.
EZBench
EZBench is a
special-purpose tool for in-house profiling of OpenGL hardware.
The product produces graphical output that lets users understand
the performance effects of using different types and sizes of polygons.
EZBench supports a variety of polygon types and sizes and supports
polygons from zero to two hundred and fifty pixels in size.
It is available for Windows and Macintosh systems and an online manual
is available on their Web site.
Under a section
called Notes, the company also seems to have a variety of other,
single-function products such as:
- MicroWorlds
- an interactive CD-ROM application that simulates a microscope
targeted towards junior and senior high students in classes such
as life science, physics, biology, anatomy and chemistry.
- GI Sim - a software
system that deploys animated 3D characters into existing applications,
including games and simulations. The program operates in both Windows
and UNIX environments and is compatible with a number of simulation
presentation systems.
- Ray Tracing
Chip - a ray tracer for the BOPS family of ultra-performing DSP
cores (designed in conjunction with BOPS, Inc.). Dubbed “MO-RAY” by
BOPS, the core is a specific implementation of BOPS ManArray architecture
and it is targeted at photo-realistic rendering applications.
Their Web site
offers a variety of other products and services that we have not
described. Check them out!
More info:
http://www.3dpipeline.com
*The WAVE Report
is not responsible for content on additional sites
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