arb assembly tutorials?

xDan · Post by **xDan** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 10:43 am

Hello,

anyone have any good resources for learning OpenGL ARB assembly?

EDIT: Since this is so high in google results for "arb assembly", I'll update my list of tutorials here -

Currently I have:
http://www.devmaster.net/forums/showthread.php?t=280
http://petewarden.com/notes/archives/20 ... gra_2.html
http://www.renderguild.com/gpuguide.pdf
http://developer.nvidia.com/docs/IO/823 ... rogram.pdf
http://developer.nvidia.com/docs/IO/823 ... rogram.pdf
http://glbook.gamedev.net/moglgp/downloads/AppA.pdf

Also the official specs, but they are a bit overwhelming:
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/ ... rogram.txt
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/ ... rogram.txt

Luben · Post by **Luben** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:21 am

What reason could you have to want to learn ogl assembly? :s

xDan · Post by **xDan** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 12:01 pm

It's supposed to be more widely supported. e.g. on older systems and on integrated intel graphics, netbooks... a fair amount of people don't have GLSL support.

CG could be another option, I've heard it can target arb assembly... but right now I can't be bothered to download the CG toolkit. And learning a low level language might be educational for me

stefbuet · Post by **stefbuet** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 12:56 pm

I thought glsl was converted to ARB when sent to the GPU

ent1ty · Post by **ent1ty** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 1:39 pm

I think that's the way all compiled languages work, don't they?
e.g. C++ code gets converted to assembly by the compiler

But i think older GPU's lack this GLSL to ARB compilation feature.
Not that i know anyone who owns such a GPU.
Even though i'm from Cambodia.

EDIT: which reminds me of line from IT Crowd

I'm sorry, are you from the past?

xDan · Post by **xDan** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 2:00 pm

No, as far as I can gather, GLSL is not converted to ARB asm.

arb assembler is actually a language in its own right (apparently it's not even actual assembler, there is some other step where it is optimised and stuff by the driver)

There's a lower level "microcode" thing that both arb asm and GLSL are compiled to.

> Not that i know anyone who owns such a GPU.
You don't know anyone with a netbook?

or anyone with integrated intel graphics over a couple of years old?

...

I take it no one has any tutorials then?

ent1ty · Post by **ent1ty** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 2:59 pm

Do seriously want people to play games on netbooks?
People with shitty HW usually don't play games.
Except for Tetris.

xDan wrote:I take it no one has any tutorials then?

Nope. Their production has been stopped before the rise of the Internet.

xDan · Post by **xDan** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 5:43 pm

> Do seriously want people to play games on netbooks?

Yes I do. There's Intel AppUp for a start. And there's so few new 3D games that would work on a netbook, who knows, there might be opportunities there.

> People with shitty HW usually don't play games.
> Except for Tetris.

That's nonsense. Did you miss the whole casual games thing? Not everyone upgrades their PC every 5 weeks.

It also seems a bit odd that my simple puzzle game should have higher gfx requirements than Doom 3. Especially if it's not even necessary to achieve the effects I want.

> Nope. Their production has been stopped before the rise of the Internet.

OH VERY FUNNY!

Yeah, I get your opinion: it's based on technological elitism and not useful to anyone developing (or at least attempting to develop) commercial apps.

ChaiRuiPeng · Post by **ChaiRuiPeng** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 6:04 pm

guys do not bash on dan

they are right that the casual games market is a VERY good place to be making money.

practically everyone in developed countries has some form of mobile entertainment. and clever little puzzle/physics based games are really fun and people DO buy them, since they are also usually cheap.

in my city i know several people who work at firms that have sections dedicated to making casual games for mobile devices and they are very well off financially.

ent1ty · Post by **ent1ty** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 6:22 pm

Handhelds - sure. But netbooks? I'm sorry, but i just don't buy it.

Anyway, if you really want to support all kinds of HW, you can also kind-of fake shaders on the software. Post processing would be the easiest one, things like per pixel lighting hard. I think you could use some kind of SW deferred rendering - instead of processing the g-buffers on the GPU, you would process them with CPU.

ChaiRuiPeng · Post by **ChaiRuiPeng** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 6:28 pm

why not netbooks? i do... when i am bored.

tremulous is a fun game to play on netbook. im not the biggest fan, i will admit, i prefer my desktop to my netbook for gaming any day, but on a long ride on the metro i will take out my netbook and yes play.

hendu · Post by **hendu** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 6:33 pm

Intel irony: The 945g can do GLSL & OpenGL 2 under linux, but not windows. ARB assembly is of course available under both.

I don't know of any tuts, not that I have searched

Cg can target ARB, that's enough for me.

xDan · Post by **xDan** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 7:32 pm

> Handhelds - sure. But netbooks? I'm sorry, but i just don't buy it.

Well, I'm not certain, but it's worth a try. Especially since it'll also enable me to support older PCs as well. Puzzle game fans probably are not in the same bracket as FPS players.

Software stuff is interesting but probably slow and likely quite difficult for me to do. assembly shaders should give some extra support with fairly minimal effort on my part.

> Intel irony: The 945g can do GLSL & OpenGL 2 under linux, but not windows

That's funny

Well, at least Linux is getting the upper hand for once.

Probably I'll look at Cg when I find assembly is too complicated for me.

xDan · Post by **xDan** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:12 pm

Just in case anyone is interested or comes here from google...

Here's probably the most useful thing I've found so far:

http://developer.nvidia.com/docs/IO/823 ... rogram.pdf
http://developer.nvidia.com/docs/IO/823 ... rogram.pdf

RVM · Post by **RVM** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:47 pm

Try to search on google with this : "ext:pdf intext:OpenGL ARB assembly"

I have found this :
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/ ... .10.59.pdf
http://www.renderguild.com/gpuguide.pdf
http://www.ceng.metu.edu.tr/courses/cen ... rogram.pdf
http://raphaello.univ-fcomte.fr/ftp/NVi ... Lspecs.pdf