The PLB project group plans to update its current benchmark suites, PLBwire93 and PLBsurf93, and to add a new benchmarking suite that will include tests based on 3D texturing applications. The current suites are expected to be updated in the first half of 1996, after which they will be voted on for reporting results in the GPC News. The 3D texture mapping files will most likely be added later in 1996.

"We need to retire the old files because we are reaching frame rate limits," says Bill Licea-Kane, president of the PLB project group. "For the PLBwire benchmarks, we need more complex models and layers that will exercise performance better. For the PLBsurf benchmarks, we need to provide files with more polygons and light sources. Overall, we need to reduce the frame rate for these tests to less than 10 for the fastest machines."

A new version of the PEXlib PLB sample implementation that project group members are testing includes support for texture mapping. Over the next several months, PLB project group members will begin implementing texture mapping in their PLB ports. The project group will then work on benchmark files based on applications that exercise texture mapping capabilities.