AMD has updated its Direct3D 11 tech-demo Leo, developed to show off the power of Radeon HD 7970. Leo 1.1 adds the educational mode that describes what features the demo exploits.

The educational mode works fine for NVIDIA GeForce cards (but it’s not the case for the demo mode) and you have to press ECS once the demo is launched (black screen) to see the menu.

we’ve been working very closely with Codemasters to optimize the DiRT Showdown engine for GCN.

Those optimizations are twofold. First, we have cooperated to implement the advanced Forward+ rendering system that AMD developed in-house for our “Leo” technical demo. Forward+ not only allows for the efficient utilization of thousands of light sources, but also performs an accurate simulation of their interactions with objects in the world.

Forward+ also resolves the developer’s choice between a “forward” or “deferred” rendering engine for their game, which can have serious implications for the look, feel and features of a title. For example, a “forward” rendering engine supports anti-aliasing, texture transparencies (like leaves and chainlink fences), and a wide variety of texture types (e.g. cloth and metal). Meanwhile, a “deferred” engine supports a large number of light sources, efficient rendering effects (“shaders”), and works well on game consoles. Thanks to Forward+, all of these technologies can efficiently coexist.

Forward+ further extends its leadership over forward and deferred engines by substantially increasing the diversity in the material types that a game may render. Whereas lighting on cloth and metal textures might look very similar on a game with a deferred engine (e.g. consoles or console ports), Forward+ can render the distinct and realistic lighting differences between them.