Timothy Miller wrote:
On 11/15/06, Nick LaForge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:This project currently conserves the old bag of tricks... but will it be possible to adapt it to 'raytrace'? If not, I see no reason to use it over the Intel.
Hi, Let me reorder this:
We're stuck having to implement things the "old way" because that's what the market demands. In order to reach the maximum number of people, we have to design the hardware that supports the applications they want to run.
> Well, obviously, OGD1 can be used for anything that fits in the FPGA. > Also, there has been at least one FPGA-based raytracing project.
Changing from rasterizing to ray-tracing would be an incredible paradigm shift, for which there is no existing software. Think hard about what would be required to translate OpenGL into what a raytracer would need.
Not really doable (or useful). A raytracer would have to have an entirely different API.
We can experiment with ray-tracing engines in hardware.
I've got 3/4 vhdl raytracer implementations here, and I'd be willing to try it on the OGD board, if I can get one with an fpga (and I can get the University to pay for it). The raytracer still needs (at least) a memory controller, which I've been unwilling to implement. And a pci interface would also be nice.
What kind of interface would we provide to the applications? And how would legacy apps be emulated?
I think the most likely thing we're gonna see is a generalized floating-point processor that can handle both OpenGL and raytracing. The GeForce 8 architecture looks usable for that.
Cheers, -- Ulf
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