New ATI Developer Tools

[Genghis Presley]

Hi Guys,
I thought I'd let you know about the new developer tools that we've just released. You can grab them all from http://ati.amd.com/developer/tools.html.

GPU PerfStudio is a real-time performance analysis tool which has been designed to help tune the graphics performance of your D3D9 application.

GPU ShaderAnalyzer is a new tool for analyzing the performance of pixel & vertex shaders on ATI Radeon graphics cards.

HLSL2GLSL is an open-source tool that translates HLSL shaders into GLSL. This lives on

The Compressonator, ATI_Compress & RenderMonkeyâ„¢ are also updated.

I hope these new tools pique you interest.

GP.

 

[Rufus]

Can anyone who's used NVPerfKit comment how it compares to PerfStudio and ShaderAnalyzer?

 

[Geo]

Thanks for stopping by with the heads-up, GP. :smile:

 

[Genghis Presley]

Thanks for stopping by with the heads-up, GP. :smile:

My pleasure. I'm excited that we've released these tools & want to let everyone know about them. I particularly can't wait to see what everyone thinks of GPU ShaderAnalyzer.

GP.

 

[stevem]

Genghis, you may want to revise the link for: http://matrix.atitech.com/wiki/images/a/a5/110106-GPUPerfStudio.png on http://ati.amd.com/developer/gpups/index.html. Tools look nice.

 

[Genghis Presley]

Genghis, you may want to revise the link for: http://matrix.atitech.com/wiki/images/a/a5/110106-GPUPerfStudio.png on http://ati.amd.com/developer/gpups/index.html. Tools look nice.

Well spotted Steve. Thanks. I'll get on to our web team to fix that.

Cheers,
GP.

 

[Dio]

What, no questions on shader architecture yet? I'm disappointed in you guys!

 

[Simon F]

What, no questions on shader architecture yet? I'm disappointed in you guys!

Maybe not shaders, but I did notice that the new compressonator page mentions ati_tc. Is there any info on that?


BTW: The plugin SDK looks interesting. [EDIT scratch that. I can't use it. The license says it must be used with ATI hardware]

 

[NocturnDragon]

[EDIT scratch that. I can't use it. - license says I must use it with ATI hardware]

Hope they mean AMD Hardware!

 

[Jawed]

What, no questions on shader architecture yet? I'm disappointed in you guys!

It's all a bit peculiar. The documentation that comes with GSA suggests that you refer to the CTM documentation for greater insights on the programming model

In AMD's spirit of openness, I was assuming that the CTM documentation would be open. But apparently not.

Anyway, I played with GSA last night and it's reasonably interesting. I don't really understand the Level A and Level B sections in the R420 assembly code (unless each level is simply a clause bounded by TEX instructions).

Jawed

 

[Dio]

Yes, that's basically right.

 

[gybe]

Are you going to add OpenGL support to the new performance analysis tools?

 

[Genghis Presley]

Maybe not shaders, but I did notice that the new compressonator page mentions ati_tc. Is there any info on that?

I'm not sure what info there is publically available on ATI_TC. I'll ask our handheld guys.

BTW: The plugin SDK looks interesting. [EDIT scratch that. I can't use it. The license says it must be used with ATI hardware]

I'd never realised that. I've just checked & it does say use the SDK with ATI hardware and any other compatible hardware product. Compatible hardware product would seem to cover a fairly broad set. I need to update the SDK for the new version of The Compressonator so I'll see if I can change the licence at the same time.

GP.

 

[Genghis Presley]

It's all a bit peculiar. The documentation that comes with GSA suggests that you refer to the CTM documentation for greater insights on the programming model

In AMD's spirit of openness, I was assuming that the CTM documentation would be open. But apparently not.

Doh. It is open. They just updated it & changed the filename in the process. You can now find it here. It is part of the ATI Researcher Relations page.

At some point I'll add more GSA specific docs but in the short term piggy-backing the CTM docs was the quickest way to get something available.

GP.

 

[Jawed]

Brilliant! Now I don't feel so guilty about the previous version disappearing off that page!



Jawed

 

[jaz]

Are you going to add OpenGL support to the new performance analysis tools?

Yes, we do plan on adding OpenGL support to GPU PerfStudio; we do not have an exact schedule yet.

 

[Genghis Presley]

Yes, we do plan on adding OpenGL support to GPU PerfStudio; we do not have an exact schedule yet.

Ditto for GPU ShaderAnalyzer.

GP.

 

[Anarchist4000]

Is the SDK/library for CTM going to become public or do we still need to fill out some paperwork to get access to the libraries? I've seen the documentation but no files.

 

[repi]

Finally a shader disassembler for ATI cards. Just hope it is possible to run the Shader Analyzer in command-line mode to automate the process just as nvshaderperf.

 

[Geo]

Why are there AMD/ATI guys coming out of the woodwork all of a sudden?

Maybe you should consider another alternative --you don't know what the f*ck you're talking about.

B3D has historically often been the recipient of this kind of notice directly by IHV and ISV employees. You'll find NV staff have done it as well, the one I remember most recently being an update to CG. Why? Because that's the kind of membership we have --folks who would be interested in knowing about this kind of technical tool being made available, or updated.

We encourage this behavior, in fact, and don't take kindly to imagery that suggests termites or cockroaches. . .