Ray Tracing for Gaming Explored

Vigile brings us a follow-up to a discussion we had recently about efforts to make ray tracing a reality for video games. Daniel Pohl, a research scientist at Intel, takes us through the nuts and bolts of how ray tracing works, and he talks about how games such as Portal can benefit from this technology. Pohl also touches on the difficulty in mixing ray tracing with current methods of rendering. Quoting: "How will ray tracing for games hit the market? Many people expect it to be a smooth transition - raster only to raster plus ray tracing combined, transitioning to completely ray traced eventually. They think that in the early stages, most of the image would be still rasterized and ray tracing would be used sparingly, only in some small areas such as on a reflecting sphere. It is a nice thought and reflects what has happened so far in the development of graphics cards. The only problem is: Technically it makes no sense."

Comments

"How will ray tracing for games hit the market?"

[bobdotorg]

That completely depends on your point of view.

Well DUH!!

[Critical Facilities]

From TFA

If you use a 16-core machine instead of a single-core machine then the frame rate increases by a factor of 15.2!

No kidding?? Well if you drive a car with a 16 cylinder, 1500 HP engine, it's a LOT faster than a 4 cylinder compact. More on this story as it develops.

Re:How far we've come in just 15 years

[Twisted64]

Imagine a gay where you could watch for enemies stealthily...

How's that voice recognition software working out for you?

Re:How far we've come in just 15 years

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine a gay

Paging Dr. Freud ...

Re:How far we've come in just 15 years

[4D6963]

Imagine a gay who could watch for enemies stealthily by monitoring shadows or reflections

There, fixed it for you, it makes a bit more sense now, I guess..

Pun Intended

[Wanado]

It is a nice thought and reflects what has happened so far in the development of graphics cards. I've been reflecting on this subject as well.

Awesome.

[randomaxe]

I can't wait to play a game where I'm a shiny silver ball floating above a checkered marble floor.