Khronos royalty-free open standards for 3D graphics, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Parallel Computing, Machine Learning, and Vision Processing

Giacomo Balma, Sr. FX Technical Artist at MPC, has created a position-based particle orientation dynamics algorithm that computes the orientation of a particle by considering the change in position of its local neighbors. It is fully implemented in OpenCL for Houdini SideFX Software DOPs and adds very little overhead to the simulation. Learn more and watch a video of it in action. 

Kitware’s Capability Analysis Tool (CAT) is designed to identify performance bottlenecks and limitations. This tool addresses critical questions that arise during development, such as:

• Animated Vertices: How does the renderer perform when dealing with vertices that are animated (changing positions over time)?
• Material Switching: Is the renderer capable of rapidly switching between different materials assigned to objects
• Surface Limits: What is the max number of surfaces the renderer can handle before experiencing a significant drop in framerate?
• Structural Changes: Can the renderer efficiently handle frequent updates to the objects within the scene?
• Instance Rendering: How many instances of a given object can the renderer efficiently process?
• Latency Stability: Does the renderer maintain stable latency under various workloads and scene complexities?

By generating procedural scenes and systematically varying parameters related to these questions, the CAT provides implementers insights into the performance characteristics and limitations of their ANARI implementations. This information can be used to optimize the renderer, identify areas for improvement, and ensure that the renderer meets the desired performance targets. This tool has been contributed to the ANARI SDK.

NVIDIA recently published beta drivers that introduce the recently released VK_KHR_shader_bfloat16 extension in Vulkan 1.4.311 build. This extension allows for Brain Float BF16 operations within shaders in conjunction with the SPV_KHR_bfloat16 extension from SPIR-V. BFloat16 extensions should prove particularly useful for modern GPUs and software supporting Vulkan-accelerated machine learning / AI. 

The new era of spatial computing has arrived! At Hololight, we believe that augmented and virtual reality (XR) will change the way we work and collaborate for the better. We provide the XR software, infrastructure and streaming technology to visualize and work with industrial 3D data at scale. In doing so, we are revolutionizing the way companies engage with 3D content and scaling the use of XR. We have spent years perfecting our proprietary streaming technology to take XR use cases to unprecedented levels of scalability, efficiency, and immersion. With a foundation built on strategic partnerships, industry-leading customer references, and unparalleled expertise in XR streaming and spatial computing, we are committed to leading the way in creating real value for enterprise XR.

In this Khronos blog, learn about Datoviz, a cross-platform, open-source, high-performance GPU scientific data visualization library designed for interactive exploration of large datasets. Written in C/C++, it leverages the Khronos Vulkan® graphics API and integrates with the glfw window library. Datoviz aims to provide a unified, language-agnostic platform for interactive visualization in both 2D and 3D, with support for GUIs and general-purpose GPU compute. Datoviz demonstrates how Vulkan’s capabilities can be leveraged for high-performance GPU visualization, tackling the challenges of large-scale scientific data rendering while maintaining flexibility and efficiency.

LunarG has released Vulkan SDK 1.4.309.0 for Linux, Windows, and MacOS. Supporting Vulkan API revision 1.4.309, this SDK update brings a host of enhancements designed to streamline your graphics development workflow. Whether you’re debugging shaders, optimizing performance, or exploring new extensions, this SDK has something for you.

Key enhancements in this version include:  

• Vulkan Validation Layer error messages get a major upgrade—now clearer, more actionable, and easier to digest due to a standardized format.  
• The Vulkan Configurator levels up with slick new features, aimed at improving developer productivity.  
• Ten new extensions join the lineup, expanding your creative toolkit.  
• Validation coverage sees a boost, helping you catch more issues with less hassle.