Looking Forward: DX10 Development
Courtesy: San Base
Tom's Hardware: What plans do you have for DirectX 10?
San Base: I'm actually very excited by the prospect of using DX 10 hardware, due to its advanced capabilities. The unlimited length shaders and advanced API features will definitely help me unlock creativity and raise the bar to the next level. As an artist, I'm constantly in the process of evolving and improving, so stay tuned.
Tom's Hardware: Do you see a use for GPU virtualization, which is expected in future generations of graphic cards?
San Base: Currently I'm able to produce very high resolution images, as high as 80-100 Mpixels, for printing on canvas. The generation process would require gigabytes of memory if I had implemented it in a straight-forward way. Currently, my engine works around this problem by generating smaller painting fragments at a time, which poses some technical and artistic challenges. Using GPU virtualization would allow me to generate very high resolution images using a wider range of techniques than I can utilize today.
Current And Future Deployments
For those looking to acquire his works, San Base only has limited run prints for sale on his website. If you would like to see more for less, he has programmed a screen saver that uses 1,000 static images for just under $25. For those frugal art lovers, he has a free screen saver with 50 static images intermixed with advertisements for SanBase.com and information on how to order prints. So far, this is the extent of the commercial use of his art, but he has been looking into other products and packages.
One idea would be to bundle his art with digital picture frames. At Computex this year we saw many forms of digital picture frames, with some models containing Bluetooth functionality so images can be streamed from a remote system. This makes for an interesting product for doctors' office waiting rooms, public transit, libraries, and other places when looking at art is a great way to pass the time. An application that could be on the near horizon would involve taking existing high definition televisions and turning them into large picture frames. This would give wall mounted TVs a reason for being on 24/7.
