Architosh Staff ([email protected])

2 Aug 2002

 

Apple's "Quartz Extreme" Presentation at SIGGRAPH - PDF

A reader has wrote in with the presentation material Apple used for showing Apple's new OpenGL and Quartz Extreme technologies at the recent SIGGRAPH graphics show in San Antonio, Texas. Apple was not an exhibitor this year but apparently the company made some type of presentation, perhaps in some other booth or in a conference session.

Apple Extends Graphics to the Max

Apple's presentation was focused on the upcoming Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2) release and its new OpenGL and Quartz Extreme technologies. In the presentation the OpenGL update was referred to as Jaguar OpenGL.

The new and updated Quartz Compositor in Jaguar will feature double buffered windows, per-pixel alpha channels, per-window fade control, per-window transform and warp, and integrated 2D, 3D and video. A diagram of the old Quartz Compositor (current in Mac OS X 10.1) demonstrates how various apps (2D, 3D and video) send their imaging into a buffer space, then to the Quartz Compositor and finally, after being composed (as in multiple apps and Finder all showing together), presented on your Mac's display.

Hardware Accelerated

The next diagram shows Quartz Extreme. Essentially everything is laid out the same only this time GPU hardware accelerates various processes, providing hardware acceleration to OpenGL apps before the initial buffer space. Quartz 2D and QuickDraw apps (2D), OpenGL apps (3D), and QuickTime apps (video), are all hardware accelerated from the initial windowing buffer space (surfaces) to the Quartz Extreme technology driven by the GPU which results in an accelerated Frame Buffering and presentation on the screen. The whole thing results in a blazing speed improvement, more than 300 percent faster in some operations.

Jaguar and Quartz Extreme

With Jaguar and Quartz Extreme you can have an arbitrary number of heads up UI (user interface) overlays over 3D content. All of the Aqua controls know about alpha and can draw themselves over arbitrary backgrounds, including animated 3D content. Imagine manipulating your menus, dialog boxes and other apps simultaneously while they present themselves layered over an animated flyby or real-time rendering scene below.

In the next update (Mac OS X 10.2) Jaguar Quartz Extreme uses OpenGL just like any other application. Thus the Macintosh desktop is transformed into a 3D OpenGL scene, regardless if any elements are in 3D. Everything you see will be a textured polygon with compositing via blending and multitexture.

Killer New Graphics Power - Jaguar

Jaguar is going to be the next major "must have" Mac OS update regardless of the pricing policy Apple has decided to exact on existing Mac OS X users. Many existing OS X users will immediately be able to reap the advantages of Quartz Extreme and Apple's new OpenGL extensions because they have the requisite hardware. For others, Jaguar will likely force a hardware update if they want to play and work at the speed of their Mac Jaguar peers.

Jaguar is timed for August 24th., a Saturday. Expect Apple to release new Power Macs on or around that date but likely not before. Apple's website on Monday, August 26, should present the full story on both Quartz Extreme and how it relates to the new Power Macs slated for that time.

New in Jaguar OpenGL

New in Jaguar OpenGL will be system integration, texture upload performance, programmable shaders, lots of new extensions and some amazing new tools. Quartz2D will now be on a texture, specifically high-quality 2D anti-aliased content on ARGB textures.

A mysterious new OpenGL Shader Builder appears in the PDF presentation. We are not sure if this is one of the new tools Apple is talking about but it sure looks like it. Another new tool appears to be an app called OpenGL Profiler. In the PDF OpenGL Profiler is looking into the Chess game which ships with Mac OS X.

Closing Comments

All of this looks extremely exciting, as if Jaquar doesn't have enough features already, Quartz Extreme and Jaguar OpenGL are such huge improvements to the Mac OS that we are not at all surprised that Jobs completely skipped over this topic during Macworld's indepth presentation of Jaquar. This material is a major presentation in itself.

Jaguar is the first OpenGL-based windowing system in existence and Apple is saying there is lots of headroom for future innovation.

We think it likely that Apple will call a press conference on August 23rd or 26th to introduce Jaguar with the new Power Macs.

Viewing the PDF - Warning: This Will Heat Your Mac Juices!

To download the PDF to your Mac click here: http://www.opengl.org/developers/code/features/siggraph2002_bof/sg2002bof_apple.pdf

Related Articles

Apple's Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2) shown at Nvidia booth at Siggraph

New Graphics Cards coming to Mac Users

SIGGRAPH 2002 - Report 1

Architosh Marketplace

MacroEnter. is a CAD/AEC/Design, networking and large format printing solutions integrator, serving business, government and education customers. Reseller of VectorWorks, Microspot, HP and Encad product lines.

CAD Garage. is an online store dedicated to Architects, Engineers, Builders, Designers and Mac enthusiasts featuring ArchiCAD, formZ, Piranesi, Cinema 4D, HP and more product lines.

Lim Consultants, Inc. provides creative architects with practical solutions while incorporating cutting edge technology, pushing the art of structural engineering to new levels of excellence.

Place your text ad here and reach thousands of professionals each month for very affordable prices. (contact: [email protected])