NVIDIA shows interactive GPU raytracer

[xen_ninja]

I wish we had more details about it. A paper or two ,perhaps.

[Kage06]

Hmm... its okay, but for the amount of power it took to create those images, the graphics are pretty terrible for what you'd call a next gen game. A standard game engine without raytracing could have produced a better result than that...
Still, its interesting they are doing something with it.

I saw a video of the PS3's cell processor linked to a couple of others, and producing better results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKqZKXwop5E&feature=related

Check the video out when it reaches the Ambient Occulsion pass.

[Szos]

Can we just forget about raytracing for a minute... it's not the end-all or be-all of rendering technology, and companies like Nvidia should know better.

I think those images look "OK" at best... but they look very flat to me. not every object is shiny/reflective, but essentially everything has some kind of bumpiness or specular highlights or other attribute to make it pop... these renderings don't show that at all. These images are trying to show off some fancy reflections too much.

[Kabab]

Its just a technical demo who cares?

[ThE_JacO]

Can we just forget about raytracing for a minute... it's not the end-all or be-all of rendering technology, and companies like Nvidia should know better.

I think those images look "OK" at best... but they look very flat to me. not every object is shiny/reflective, but essentially everything has some kind of bumpiness or specular highlights or other attribute to make it pop... these renderings don't show that at all. These images are trying to show off some fancy reflections too much.

nVIDIA has already stated what their position is, and it's not that raytracing is the end all be all, it's that they think rasterization still has a lot of mileage to go, and raytracing should be used sparingly and in context, and not bruteforce all the way through. So, they already do know better.

This is a tech demo to show that they can do it, it does't mean they are re-focusing away from rasterization, only that they have acquired and developed technologies to implement additional features when they are needed.

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