------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RenderMonkey (tm) (Release v1.82.320) April 2008 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This software is copyright Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 2007. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the official release of RenderMonkey version 1.8 for DirectX 9.0c, OpenGL 2.0, and OpenGL ES 2.0. This is the first release to provide support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 API. It also includes a number of bug fixes and a variety of new features (see the list below). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes about using OpenGL/OpenGL ES for shader programming: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - In OpenGL, if you plan to use tangent and binormal vertex information in RenderMonkey, they must be declared as follows: attribute vec3 rm_Tangent; attribute vec3 rm_Binormal; in order to be correctly filled with the appropriate data by RenderMonkey - In OpenGL ES, RenderMonkey allows the user to set vertex attribute names. By default, names are chosen such as "rm_Vertex", "rm_TexCoord0", etc. To change the vertex attribute names, modify the name in the Stream Map Editor. - Winding of polygons in OpenGL/OpenGL ES and DirectX is different. RenderMonkey load model data by default in the DirectX style, using LHS coordinate system. However, each user has an option to modify the style of geometry object creation in RenderMonkey. In order to do that, the user can right-click on any geometry object and select their preference - "LHS orientation" for DirectX-style, left-hand coordinate system, or "RHS orientation" for OpenGL-style, right-hand coordinate system. If the user wishes to preserve this preference as the default for all of their workspaces, they can select the orientation style from the application preferences accessible from the Edit menu. Similarly, the user has a choice for loading textures into RenderMonkey texture variables. By default (and without specific user application preference), textures are loaded in DirectX-style orientation (top-left corner corresponds to (0,0) coordinate (i.e. origin). However, by right-clicking on a given texture node, the user can select OpenGL-style orientation for the texture (the origin would be located in the bottom right corner of the texture). The user also has an option to select this as the default loading style by selecting appropriate origin orientation from the application preferences. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New in RenderMonkey 1.82 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Updated to use the latest ATI Tessellation library (require Catalyst 8.11 or greater). - Fix for running the tool without admin privileges. If the tool crashes upon starting please give the local users read and write access to the Error.txt file in C:\Program Files\AMD\RenderMonkey 1.82\. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New in RenderMonkey 1.81 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Support for continuous hardware tessellation has been added to RenderMonkey. This feature is supported by ATI Radeon 2000 series and above. To use hardware tessellation in your DirectX workspace, you need to add a tessellation node to the render pass and modify your vertex shader. See the example workspace in Examples/Dx9/Tessellation.rfx on how to modify your vertex shader to use the tessellation hardware. Workspace Editor 1. For DirectX, a new tessellation node can be added through the context menu of the render pass. DirectX Preview Window 1. Added support to enable hardware tessellation using ATI Tessellation library. Tessellation Node Editor 1. Added to modify the tessellation level which ranges from 1.0 to 14.99. New DirectX Examples 1. Added an example workspace that showcases the new tessellation effects (in Examples/Dx9/Tessellation.rfx). 2. Added a default tessellation workspace in the default DirectX effects. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New in RenderMonkey 1.8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COLLADA Effect Exporter 1. Workspaces, effect groups, and individual effects can now be exported as COLLADA documents. See the RenderMonkey COLLADA Documentation for details. COLLADA Mesh Importer 1. COLLADA triangle mesh data can now be imported into a model. See the RenderMonkey COLLADA Documentation for details. New OpenGL ES 2.0 Example Workspaces 1. Example workspaces that showcase some new OpenGL ES 2.0 effects. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New in RenderMonkey 1.7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OpenGL ES 2.0 Preview Window 1. Newly added preview window, with full support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 API. DirectX Disassembly Window 1. For DX9 HLSL shaders, the Disassembly window now shows GPU HW disassembly with shader stats. The supported GPU disassemblies are Radeon 9700, Radeon x800, Radeon x850, Radeon x1800, and Radeon x1900. DirectX Preview Window 1. Now built using the February 2007 DirectX 9.0 SDK Update. Shader Editor 1. Syntax highlighting for the OpenGL ES Shading Language (ES SL 1.0) Render State Editor 1. Modified to support OpenGL ES 2.0 render states Texture Parameter Editor 1. Modified to support OpenGL ES 2.0 texture parameters Stream Map Editor 1. Modified to support user editable vertex attribute names for OpenGL ES 2.0. Examples 1. A full suite of shader examples for OpenGL ES 2.0 have been added. RenderMonkey SDK 1. All PlugIn SDK samples have been converted to Visual Studio 2005. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New in RenderMonkey 1.62 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shader Editor: 1. HLSL compilation flags for controlling matrix packing, flow control, and optimization compilation behavior. DirectX / OpenGL Preview Window: 1. Full screen rendering option through the F2 key. DirectX Preview Window 1. RenderMonkey has fixed how it handles a matrix in HLSL, changing the packing order to make it more compatible with other applications. Existing workspaces will retain their original packing orders, while allowing the user to update the packing order if necessary. This is done through the “Properties” button in the HLSL Shader Editor. These changes also enable the user to directly use RenderMonkey disassembled HLSL shaders, without needing to transpose the matrix multiplications. 2. Now built using the August 2006 DirectX 9.0 SDK Update. FX Exporter 1. There have been improvements made to the FX Exporter, making exported workspaces more compatible with other applications. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New in RenderMonkey 1.6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shader Editor: 1. Now contains "IntelliSense", making struct or vector component selection much quicker and easier. 2. Improved syntax highlighting for all shader models. 3. An improved constant editor (for DX9 assembler shaders). Workspace Editor: 1. Small texture thumbnails for both color and alpha channels displayed right in tree view. Texture thumbnails in the tree view context menus also now contain both the color and alpha channels (when appropriate). 2. Thumbnails for all color variables are displayed, showing both the color and alpha components. 3. Error conditions in nodes are now better visualized by node text being displayed red, as well as the appropriate icon error overlay. 4. The workspace tree view now supports multiple node drag and drop operations. Node selection is done while pressing the control or shift buttons, or the user can also select a group of nodes in the workspace tree by defining a rectangular region. Texture Viewer: 1. This release contains a new texture viewer plug-in. This plug-in allows the user to view the contents of a texture (2D, 3D, and cubemap), and change the associated properties. The user is able to view all available mip-map levels, and is also able to zoom into the displayed texture contents. Fur Generator: 1. This release contains a new fur generator plug-in. This plug-in allows the user to create fur textures (for shell and fin rendering) based on a set of parameters, and will also create an example workspace that shows how to use the various features encoded into the generated textures. Fur Fin Generator: 1. To accompany the fur generator, this release contains a new fur fin geometry generator plug-in. This plug-in will take a model, and generate a new model that contains degenerate fin geometry based on the original model. Users can use this model directly with the fur generator, or in their own applications. Artist Editor: 1. This release contains the first revision of a new artist editor. This interface supports the editing of all artist-editable variables within RenderMonkey, including dynamic variables, matrices, and textures. DirectX / OpenGL Preview Window: 1. Added additional runtime error checking and reporting for shader constant types, sampler types, supported texture formats, etc. DirectX Preview Window: 1. Added support to allow texture sampling through the vertex shader (SM 3.0). 2. Improved support for shader models 2.a, 2.b, and 3.0. 3. Now outputs compilation warnings for successful compiles. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Known issues ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following is the list of current known issues with this release. Where it is a RenderMonkey application issue, we will fix these with a future RenderMonkey release. Known issues on Nvidia Hardware 1447 Nvidia 5900 Ultra - Deferred Shading - Doesn't render in preview window 1445 Nvidia 6800 and 5900: HDR effect doesn't render - Render Monkey 1.6.46 1405 DX: Copying dissassembled HLSL into ASM requires all matrix constants transformed 1361 DirectX 9.0c does not support mip mapped textures of non-power-of-two dimensions 664 Speaker- tearing- Render Monkey v1.1 build 250 GeForce 5900 Ultra kit 53.03 662 NVIDIA 5900 - Shadows - no light displayed in the shadow mapping (Driver kit 61.77) 660 Planets- Render Monkey v1.1 build 250 GeForce 5900 Ultra (Driver kit 61.77) 658 Screen Space Effects- Blur Fade- Render Monkey v1.1 build 250 GeForce 5900 Ultra kit 53.03 654 NVIDIA 5900 - Particle System- "Particle Volume Visulization Effect" - crashes RenderMonkey (Driver kit 61.77) 653 Nvidia 5900: Depth of Complexity- effect renders with stutter on GeForce 5900 Ultra kit 61.77 385 Non-power-of-two textures not working properly 374 Nvidia 5900- Stones- Procedural tiles colors look different compared to ATI rendering (Driver kit 61.77) 373 Nvidia 5900 and 6800 - Shadows- Shadow Mapping effect doesn't cast light (Driver kit 61.77) 369 Nvidia 5900- Order-Independent Transparency- teapot is black 368 Nvidia 5900 and 6800 - Motion Blur doesn't render torus 366 Nvidia 5900 and 6800 - NPR- Whiteboard doesn't render Known issues on all hardware: 661 Can't use RenderMonkey SDK compiled MFC utility library with Visual Studio 6. Any plugins written using the SDK which rely on the MFC utility library (currently only the SDKNoteEditorDlgDockingWnd plugin from the examples) - will not compile using Visual Studio 6. Visual Studio 7.1 is required to use this functionality. This is only true for MFCUtilities.lib. Other libraries can be used with either of IDE. 717 Moving RenderMonkey shortcuts in the start menu causes installer to start every time you run the program 899 Preview window settings should be saved per-effect, not per workspace 1240 GL: Renderable Textures always created as R8G8B8A8, instead of set renderable texture type 1303 GL: Cannot inherit texture states from default effect 1242 GL - no support for ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat/EXT_texture_mirror_clamp 1319 FX exporter needs support for render-to-texture using latest Microsoft FX annotations. FX exporter does not have support for the scripting annotations (and therefore for render-to-texture using scripting annotation). 1385 Add min / max clamping to matrix variable node 1463 Shader Editor: Fix tooltip so vectors(etc) show x,y,z,w, instead of w,x,y,z ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Further Information ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For the most up to date documentation and information on RenderMonkey, please visit the ATI developer web site at: http://www.ati.com/developer If you have any questions or feature requests for RenderMonkey please email: gputools.support@amd.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------