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NVIDIA Leads the Way to Next-Gen Game Development at GDC 2005

 
 

For further information, contact:

Carrie Cowan
NVIDIA Corporation
(408) 486-7330
ccowan@nvidia.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE—SAN FRANCISCO, CA—MARCH 7, 2005—NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, today announced an expansive line-up for this week’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), a trade forum attended by more than 10,000 game developers and industry insiders driving the $9.9 billion¹ video games market.

From its booth (#410), NVIDIA will demonstrate its award-winning software tools and hardware platforms for PCs and handheld devices, host technical talks/tutorials, and showcase a number of hot new games, middleware, and rendering applications that take advantage of NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs). 

The Company will also introduce two key new resources for 3D content creators: the latest version of the NVIDIA Developer Toolkit, and “GPU Gems 2: Programming Techniques for High-Performance Graphics and General-Purpose Computation,” the sequel to one of the definitive source books of programming tips and techniques, published by Addison-Wesley.

“NVIDIA has consistently delivered leading-edge technologies central to the gaming experience, captivating gamers with life-like graphics and breakthrough performance on PCs, consoles and, now, handheld gaming devices,”  said Mark Daly, vice president of content development at NVIDIA. “NVIDIA’s tight integration with the game development community and hardware device manufacturers means that we're able to deliver the technology platforms and tools that address the needs of an evolving game industry.”

Technologies on display in the NVIDIA booth at GDC include:

  • NVIDIA GeForce™ 6 Series of graphics processing units (GPUs), the latest-generation of the Company’s flagship product line of award-winning GPUs for desktop and notebook PCs;
  • NVIDIA GoForce™ 3D wireless media processors (WMP), the first 3D core with programmable shader technology for handheld devices;
  • NVIDIA TurboCache™ technology, a patent-pending approach to system memory management;
  • NVIDIA SLI™ technology, a revolutionary approach to scalability and increased performance.

NVIDIA Speaking Events
Technical experts from NVIDIA will lead a series of tutorials and discussions, each designed to educate and ignite the knowledge base of game developers working with NVIDIA GPUs.  Sessions include: 

  • “Advanced Visual Effects with Direct3D” (Monday, March 7, 10:00 am – 6:00 PM)
  • “Under the Covers with Mobile 3D” (Monday, March 7, 2:00-3:00 PM)
  • “Next-Generation Rendering with OpenGL” (Tuesday, March 8, 10:00 am – 6:00 PM)
  • Next Generation Rendering with OpenGL (Tuesday, March 8, 10:00-6:00PM) 
  • “Next-Gen Special Effects Showcase” (Wednesday, March 9, 9:00-10:00 AM)
  • “Coming to a Pixel Near You:  Mobile 3D Graphics on the NVIDIA GoForce WMP” (Wednesday, March 9, 12-1PM)
  • “The NVIDIA Performance Analysis Tools” (Wednesday, March 9, 2:30-3:30 PM)
  • “Shader Workflow with FX Composer” (Wednesday, March 9, 4:00-6:00 PM)
  • “GPU Gems 2 Showcase” (Wednesday, March 9, 5:15-6:00PM)
  • “Working on OpenGL ES: Developer Perspectives” (Thursday, March 10, 2:55-3:35 PM)
  • Khronos Group OpenGL ES: Industry Experts Panel (Thursday, March 10, 5:30-6:30 PM)

NVIDIA Partner Demonstrations
The NVIDIA booth at GDC will provide conference attendees with a first-hand look at some of the games taking advantage of NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series GPUs, including:

  • Bet on Soldier – A fast-paced, run-and-gun first-person, shooter game from developer Kylotonn Entertainment and publisher Digital Jesters;
  • Juiced – A street-racer game from publisher THQ that leverages Shader Model 3.0-based effects to create an authentic driving experience;
  • LEGO® Star Wars™: The Video Game - Published by Giant Games, this PC game uses Shader Model 3.0 effects to plunge players into the Star Wars universe, LEGO style;
  • Star Wars: Republic Commando - a squad-based first person shooter that takes advantage of NVIDIA UltraShadow™ II technology to render realistic shadows and effects;
  • Terra Firma: Havoc – A futuristic role-playing game with an innovative use of lighting and high-dynamic range rendering;
  • The Sims 2: University – The first expansion pack for the highly-acclaimed The Sims 2 PC game from Electronic Arts; and
  • Trackmania: Sunrise – The sequel to the popular track-builder/racer game features ultra-realistic lighting and Shader Model 3.0 effects.

NVIDIA will also devote space within its booth to showcase up-and-coming game development talent, including the creators of Red Orchestra: Combined Arms, the recent grand prize winner in the “$1,000,000 NVIDIA Make Something Unreal” contest, as well as to a variety of next-generation 3D rendering and authoring tools will also be on display, each of which leverages NVIDIA GPUs to enable near photo-realistic, real-time authoring capabilities. Applications include trueSpace 7 (Caligari Corporation), Mimic (DAZ Studios), Animation Master (Hash, Inc.), Shade 7, and Poser 6 (Curious Labs). 

NVIDIA is also teaming up with Gizmondo Europe Ltd., to showcase the eagerly anticipated Gizmondo device, the first handheld of its kind to leverage the NVIDIA GoForce 3D 4500 WMP.   The Gizmondo showcase within the NVIDIA booth at GDC will consist of the Gizmondo game pad, as well as seven new titles from Gizmondo Studios, Sega, and Fathammer currently in development for the device.

The Game Developers Conference will take place at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, CA, from March 7-11. For more information about NVIDIA at GDC, please visit www.nvidia.com or http://developer.nvidia.com. 

About NVIDIA
NVIDIA Corporation is a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors. The Company’s products enhance the end-user experience on consumer and professional computing devices. NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs), media and communications processors (MCPs), and wireless media processors (WMPs) have broad market reach and are incorporated into a variety of platforms, including consumer and enterprise PCs, notebooks, workstations, PDAs, mobile phones, and video game consoles. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and employs more than 2,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the Company’s Web site at www.nvidia.com.

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, the features, performance, capabilities and benefits of NVIDIA products and technology are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations.  Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, manufacturing or software defects, incompatibility of technologies, reliance on third-party manufacturers, general industry trends including cyclical trends in the semiconductor industry, the impact of competitive products and pricing alternatives, changes in industry standards and interfaces, our dependence on third-party developers and publishers and other risks detailed from time to time in the NVIDIA reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 24, 2004. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

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Copyright © 2005 NVIDIA Corporation.  All rights reserved.  All 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.

¹Annual 2004 U.S. retail sales of video games and hardware according to The NPD Group