ATI has unveiled another piece of the graphics technology slated for the next-generation Radeon card, which is expected to ship late this year. Smartshader is ATI's name for the upcoming card's vertex and pixel shaders, which will match all of the GeForce3's special effects and make some enhancements. ATI worked with Microsoft to add support for Smartshader to the upcoming revision of DirectX to version 8.1.

　　The advantages of Smartshader come mainly in the area of pixel shaders, which manipulate texture layers for effects much more advanced than typical bump mapping. ATI's specification allows support for up to six textures in a single pass, instead of the four textures supported by the GeForce3. This suggests that the next-generation Radeon's architecture will be similar to the current design, with two rendering pipelines each capable of processing three textures simultaneously. ATI has also doubled how complex the pixel shader programs can be, which is intended to allow for more accurate modeling of materials and surfaces, including hair, skin, wood, and water. Smartshader also includes the same vertex effects as the GeForce3, which allows for better character animation and advanced lighting in games that support the effects.

　　ATI announced in early June that the next Radeon will be capable of greatly increasing the detail of 3D objects with a technology called Truform. We will soon have more information on ATI's Smartshader technology.