Some time ago i came across some pages of realtime-raytracing projects. The SaarCOR Project was able to produce a prototype Raytracing-Chip which runs at only 90 MHz and already has the same Raytracing-Power as a (virtual) Pentium 4 with 16GHz (simulated on multiple processors).
Some advantages of Raytracing engines are:
- increasing polygon count of a scene doesn't affect rendering speed much.
- Raytracing engines are much easier to code
- 100% pixel-correct shadows
- Realicstic light distortion through glass, water, mirrors and such with just a small performance decrease
- many more
With a polygon engine it's already possible to run visual stunning high-detail environments, but how about voxels?
Maybe it's possible to use the card for Voxel raytracing (or raycasting)
too...
I don't know much about Voxel engines and related hardware calculations but maybe someone around here is able to estimate if this might be useful.
Another page with some nice media: http://www.openrt.de Especially look at the Game "Oasen" which looks really great.
Sadly all comments in the videos are in german so most of you might not be able to understand what they're talking about, but the visuals speak for themself.
The Island in the "Oasen" Video is made out of 25 Million Polygons and renders smoothly without any detail/polygon reduction algorythms.
Edited at
KillerQ13 at
I'm gonna guess and say "No."
Personal bet with myself.
Anonymous at
There is one problem SaarCor didn't render animated scenes because it uses higly optimated data input. Scond only avaible raytracing hardware by now is ART-VPS Render Drive or PURE series by now. But they are long away from realtime. The best cards for rendering voxels are just voxelredering-cards. Didn'T knew any manufacturer by now but it seems that Widcat Realizm has voxel rendering functions.
Agent ME at
I think he meant software raytracing...
WAIT A SECOND! Is Raytracing where the game calculate where the light rays are and where they go? I've been stuck under a ROCK ALL THESE YEARS! I never technology was at this speed! (Which is ironic because I have new computer which is really fast.)
Anonymous at
Re: Realtime Raytracing Hardware useful for Voxels?
Hazard said
Some advantages of Raytracing engines are:
- increasing polygon count of a scene doesn't affect rendering speed much.
haha, you mean if you intersect lightray with 1000 polygons it's same that you intersect lightray with 10000 polygons?
Hazard said
- Raytracing engines are much easier to code
sure, if you don't care about speed.
Hazard at
Anonymous said
Hazard said
Some advantages of Raytracing engines are:
- increasing polygon count of a scene doesn't affect rendering speed much.
haha, you mean if you intersect lightray with 1000 polygons it's same that you intersect lightray with 10000 polygons?
Hazard said
- Raytracing engines are much easier to code
sure, if you don't care about speed.
Just look at the Links provided before. There already ARE realtime raytracing engines and yes, it is obviously more performant to use an optimized ray intersection routine. The point is that the Ray does NOT have to intersect with all polygons in the scene. Yes, you're right, you need a whole bunch of processing power to start with (much more than needed for a rasterizer) but when you increase the complexity of the scene the rasterizer will slow down to the level of the raytracer and will soon fall behind it.
Look at intrace.com. Just to visualize the dimensions: They are able to smoothly render a 350 million polygon scene on a single (4 cpu) machine in realtime! They'll come to the CeBit in march and will show off this (interactive) demo and i'll be there to see it with my own eyes.
maniac1701 at
Realtime Raytracing Hardware useful for Voxels?
i think the original wolf3d was a simplified ray tracer
on the other hand this sounds like it isn't practicle becuase you need 4cpu's and most people don't have more than 1 in thier computer (like me)
masterlee at
Only hardware raytracing i currently seen is ArtVPS RenderDrive and Pure-Card.
http://www.artvps.com/
Other has schon impressiv but never selled Hardware. It looks like realtime raytracing hardware will come when AmigaOne cames out, never or later.
Hazard at
maniac1701 said
i think the original wolf3d was a simplified ray tracer
on the other hand this sounds like it isn't practicle becuase you need 4cpu's and most people don't have more than 1 in thier computer (like me)
Yes, it isn't practical at the moment but with increasing cpu power we'll get closer to the break-even-point at wich raytracing is the faster way. You should notice that the InTrace solution is totally Software. An additional hardware-acceleration like SaarCOR would surely speed it up extremely.
Semicharm at
Ya, just think how many P4s it would take to do the work of the latest nVidia card! BTW, if raytracing engines can do millions of polygons, how about other types of geometry like NURBS.
tom_a_sparks at
real time raytracing software based is here
"
Try, for example, running Gamma2 from Mfx in high resolution mode and discover the real computational power of your processor. Sometimes people don't even believe raytracing can be done at the speed of 10 or more frames per second: i.e. Iflic by Spinning Kids didn't get a good rating at TheItalianGathering'97 because many thought reflections there were just plain environment mapping... likewise the text files accompanying Mfx's Gamma and Gamma2 are a clear example of the same atmosphere around this Finnish demogroup that started endless discussions."
http://www.acm.org/tog/resources/RTNews/demos/overview.htm
see the true CPU speed here with real time ray traing http://www.realstorm.com/
masterlee at
You post comes some what late. Also the news you postet are not so new, but they are good for completion. For the same reason i maintion to visit the follwing page:
http://www.uni-weimar.de/cms/index.php?id=4353&L=1
Also this is more specific for raytracing. Something more specific for voxel rendering can found here:
http://www.pvrdev.com/pub/PC/eg/h/Voxel.htm