SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today's top video games use complex programming and rendering techniques that can take months to create and tune in order to get the image quality and silky-smooth frame rates that gamers demand. Thousands of developers worldwide including members of Blizzard Entertainment, Crytek, Epic Games, and Rockstar Games rely on NVIDIA development tools to create console and PC video games. Today, NVIDIA has expanded its award-winning development suite with three new tools that vastly speed up this development process, keeping projects on track and costs under control.


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The new tools which are available now include:

-- PerfHUD(TM) 6 -- a graphics debugging and performance analysis tool for DirectX 9 and 10 applications.

-- FX Composer(TM) 2.5 -- an integrated development environment for fast creation of real-time visual effects.

-- Shader Debugger -- helps debug and optimize shaders written with HLSL, CgFX, and COLLADA FX Cg in DirectX and OpenGL.

"These new tools reinforce our deep and longstanding commitment to help game developers fulfill their vision," said Tony Tamasi, vice president of technical marketing for NVIDIA. "Creating a state-of-the-art video game is an incredibly challenging task technologically, which is why we invest heavily in creating powerful, easy-to-use video game optimization and debugging tools for creating console and PC games."

More Details on the New Tools

PerfHUD 6 is a new and improved version of NVIDIA's graphics debugging and performance analysis tool for DirectX 9 and 10 applications. PerfHUD (http://www.perfhud.com) is widely used by the world's leading game developers to debug and optimize their games. This new version includes comprehensive support for optimizing games for multiple GPUs using NVIDIA SLI(R) technology, powerful new texture visualization and override capabilities, an API call list, dependency views, and much more. In a recent survey, more than 300 PerfHUD 5 users reported an average speedup of 37% after using PerfHUD to tune their applications.

"Spore relies on a host of graphical systems that support a complex and evolving universe. NVIDIA PerfHUD provides a unique and essential tool for in- game performance analysis," said Alec Miller, Graphics Engineer at Maxis. "The ability to overlay live GPU timings and state helps us rapidly diagnose, fix, and then verify optimizations. As a result, we can simulate rich worlds alongside interactive gameplay. I highly recommend PerfHUD because it is so simple to integrate and to use."

FX Composer 2.5 is an integrated development environment for fast creation of real-time visual effects. FX Composer 2.5 (http://www.fxcomposer.com) can be used to create shaders for HLSL, CgFX, and COLLADA FX Cg in DirectX and OpenGL. This new release features an improved user interface, DirectX 10 Support, ShaderPerf with GeForce(R) 8 and 9 Series support, visual models and styles, and particle systems.

As longer, more complex shaders become pervasive, debugging shaders has become more of a challenge for developers. To assist developers with this task, NVIDIA introduces the brand-new NVIDIA Shader Debugger(TM), a plug-in for FX Composer 2.5 that enables developers to inspect their code while seeing shader variables applied in real time on their geometry. The Shader Debugger (http://www.shaderdebugger.com) can be used to debug HLSL, CgFX, and COLLADA FX Cg shaders in both DirectX and OpenGL.

The NVIDIA Shader Debugger is the first product in the NVIDIA Professional Developer Tools lineup. These are new tools directed at professional developers who need more industrial-strength capabilities and support. For example, the NVIDIA Shader Debugger will run on leading GPUs from all vendors. In addition to the free versions available for non-commercial use, some of the new tools are subject to a license fee, but are priced to be accessible to developers. Existing free tools (such as FX Composer, PerfHUD, Texture Tools, and SDKs) will not be affected -- they will continue to be available to all developers at no cost. Shader Debugger pricing information is available at http://www.shaderdebugger.com.

NVIDIA encourages developers to visit its developer web site (http://developer.nvidia.com) and its developer tools forums (http://developer.nvidia.com/forums).

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) is the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, a high-performance processor which generates breathtaking, interactive graphics on workstations, personal computers, game consoles, and mobile devices. NVIDIA serves the entertainment and consumer market with its GeForce(R) products, the professional design and visualization market with its Quadro(R) products, and the high-performance computing market with its Tesla(TM) products. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. NVIDIA's inaugural NVISION 08 conference will be held August 25-27, 2008 in San Jose, Calif. For more information, visit http://www.nvidia.com and http://www.nvision08.com.

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the features, performance, uses, capabilities and impact of PerfHUD 6.0, FX Composer 2.5, NVIDIA Shader Debugger, NVIDIA SLI technology, and the NVIDIA Professional Tools lineup; use of more complex shaders; and pricing and availability of NVIDIA tools are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: changes in the development of video games; changing demands of developers; software defects; the impact of technological development and competition; changes in customer preferences and demands; unanticipated lose of performance as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-Q for the period ended April 27, 2008. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on our website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward- looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

Copyright (C) 2008 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, NVIDIA Logo, PerfHUD, FX Composer, NVIDIA Shader Debugger, SLI, GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other company and/or product names may be trade names, trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice.

SOURCE NVIDIA Corporation