Raytracing in GPU Showcases

Anakhoresis — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:36:51 GMT

After reading the latest news on GF100, and noticing that once again, Raytracing was showcased, I have two things I find interesting.

1) Why is it they're using raytracing? I understand what it is (... Generally, at least, don't ask me for math), and more importantly that it's very intensive on whatever is calculating it, but I doubt most people do, and so, for example, when Larrabee was showcased rendering a level from Enemy Territory: Quake Wars with raytracing, many people scoffed at the low framerates. I would think this would be more damaging than helpful, in the end. Nvidia's GF100 showcase at least showed off other demos as well, and .063 FPS for a scene like that is actually pretty nice, but it was still there.

2) Really, just why don't they create a demo that leverages current graphical APIs and rendering techniques to show off their power? For example, on youtube, there's this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNlglowwBXA . This was passed off as a DirectX 11 video, when it's actually a render from Vue, but really, graphics similar to those should be possible with the new high-end GPUs. Why don't they get some high quality artists, and obviously they've shown they can make some pretty nifty graphics engines themselves, and actually put together a demo that will mean something to more people?

I dunno, was just curious to see what other people would think. I just think it's rather bad marketing, unless, of course, they're intentionally keeping details to themselves?

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Raytracing in GPU Showcases