Nvidia has something called "CUDA", which is essentially a C-like programming language that compiles to the GPU. I haven't looked into it, but my guess is, that's a tool real-time raytracing could benefit from, if it hasn't already. I think if we've learned anything over the past 10 years or so, trying to use the CPU to do your pixel-level rendering is just too inefficient. CPU's just aren't optimized for that purpose, but GPU's are.
----- Original Message ---- > From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: OpenSceneGraph Users <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 4:33:12 PM > Subject: Re: [osg-users] Real Time Ray-Tracing: The End of Rasterization? > > Jean-Sébastien Guay wrote: > > Hello, > > > >> Interesting topic for graphics freaks :-) > >> http://blogs.intel.com/research/2007/10/real_time_raytracing_the_end_o.html > >> > > > > Well, considering the fact that since about 2000, research in > > real-time raytracing has been ongoing, but has relied on distributed > > computing (sometimes 40 machines or more in parallel), combined to > > the fact that we're seeing more and more cores in CPUs these days, > > and finally that raytracing is easy and efficient to parallelize > > (which as we know is not always the case for GPU-based rendering) > > it's only logical that it's coming. > > > > The question is when will it start being useful for the general > > population, as the mainstream use of GPUs is now. > > > > It's a very powerful and intuitive technique that I wish were more in > > use today. Hopefully it will be in the not so distant future. > > > > J-S > > http://blogs.intel.com/research/2007/10/more_on_the_future_of_raytraci.php > > > David Kirk, Nvidia’s chief scientist was a panelist on a panel called > > “When Will Ray-Tracing Replace Rasterization” at SIGGRAPH 02. There > > he said, > > > > “I’ll be interested in discussing a bigger question, though: ‘When > > will hardware graphics pipelines become sufficiently programmable to > > efficiently implement ray tracing and other global illumination > > techniques?’. I believe that the answer is now, and more so from now > > on! As GPUs become increasingly programmable, the variety of > > algorithms that can be mapped onto the computing substrate of a GPU > > becomes ever broader. As part of this quest, I routinely ask artists > > and programmers at movie and special effects studios what features > > and flexibility they will need to do their rendering on GPUs, and > > they say that they could never render on hardware! What do they use > > now: crayons? Actually, they use hardware now, in the form of > > programmable general-purpose CPUs. I believe that the future > > convergence of realistic and real-time rendering lies in highly > > programmable special-purpose GPUs.” - David Kirk, Nvidia. > > > > This was five years ago! > > > hopefully people are going to implement it with ati and open source drivers. > maybe they add their gpu as a coprozessor to gcc. would enable to compile a > renderer with ati chip support. > > http://www.realityprime.com/articles/scenegraphs-past-present-and-future#tomorro > w > > lets see what the future brings and where osg is heading. > > _______________________________________________ > osg-users mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.openscenegraph.org/listinfo.cgi/osg-users-openscenegraph.org > _______________________________________________ osg-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openscenegraph.org/listinfo.cgi/osg-users-openscenegraph.org
