I'm impressed by the raytracing speeds and all but is it surprising that it has near linear scaling? Raytracing is very well suited for parallel processing and scaling is nearly linear on CPU's if the software is well optimized and you're on a good network.
I'm sorry Michael but you have a poor understanding of rendering technology. They are showing off technology to potential partners and customers. They are not proposing an engine that utilizes the technology which will go to the consumer. It won't look pretty until it is developed as an end product.
What is important is that these rays are being cast in a relatively efficient manner allowing for realtime feedback. An engineer doesn't care specifically what those rays may be used for but just that they are being calculated efficiently and accurately.
Ya see with raytracing you can use the cast rays for many effects like reflection and refraction. But why develop and advanced, layered shading system which uses those rays in all sorts of cool ways if this is just a research project?
This is all still proof of concept. Just the fact that you can raytrace an image like this is impressive. Once realtime raytracing is a reality, then more advanced shading systems will be developed which do more interesting things with those cast rays. An example shown in the article is physically based refraction for glass and water. A more challenging application would be subsurface scattering "light penetrating a surface and bouncing around before it bounces back out, i.e wax," or light dispersion " colored light being separated.
The advantages to raytracing are very real. The tests that are run just wont look very special. Another good example is soft shadowing and ambient light. If you have a high detail surface "bricks, cracks mortar and such" These features will really shine. When it's being tested on a level with 60,000 total polygons and only diffuse textures, not so much.
I'm pretty sure they took that into account. They can even reproduce the effects of the moons gravity on our oceans in simulations. The other moons that contain trenches from the pull of a planets gravity "Titan, Europa" are orbiting Saturn which is 95 times the mass of the earth.
Not that it isn't possible. Our scientific theories keep being revised as we learn more but that's just it. It would be unlikely that it is caused by earths gravity and we should invest our research in other possibilities that seem more likely.
This really is getting ridiculous. I buy an obscene amount of games. Partly because I want to help support artists and creators like myself. That rationale is starting to wear thin for me now.
For instance, I bought Arkham City, an absolutely amazing game. One of the best I've played in years. I got 89% through the whole game "2nd play through, 440 riddler trophies, most of the challenges, all sidequests," Then there was a problem with my internet connection, entire neighborhood went down. After I got my internet back I started Arkham City up again and oh look, my save files disappeared. The reason it disappeared is DRM. Saves are managed by Windows Live and encrypted to be specific to your system. They were trying to keep people from cheating and instead they've ended up punishing people who play their games.
"that should be why the sea life around the place is dying."
For some reason I bothered to click your link to a google search. So where was the substantial article supporting your point? I saw a blog or two, an article from the examiner and some youtube nuclear experts.
While this is something that needs to be researched over the coming decades making poorly informed assumptions doesn't help anyone.
Unity:
As well as working on IOS and Android if exporters are purchased. Want to get a kid interested? Tell them that they could put it on their phone and/or sell it in the app store...
It is by far one of the most straightforward applications for game development. The demo scene loads a fully completed level. Press the play button and the map is playable. Press pause and you go back to editing mode. Move some stuff around add or delete lights and press play again to see your changes. There are start to finish level design and mechanics tutorials, a great community, and it is highly intuitive.
This is perfect for teaching a kid how to make games.
I want to clarify that I can't think of anything more important to our species than the ability to leave this planet indefinitely. What we have learned about our universe and the geological history of this planet is that eventually something will destroy Earth or at least alter it so drastically that it cannot support human life any longer. The big questions are when and how that will happen. Maybe a giant asteroid will hit us, Yellowstone may blow it's top again, or we damage the current ecosystem so badly that Earth becomes inhospitable. So I really want make clear, I am very pro space travel.
However, that is why we need to be reasonable. We need to gather more information on space in general, test materials that can withstand the extreme conditions in outer space, and research advanced propulsion technologies. This kind of research can be done without human beings physically present. The cost of keeping a sack of meat alive on a 9 month trip to Mars is absurd. If we ever consider spending that much money it should all be spent on research and development until the actual trip to Mars is no longer costly and what is then based on old and reliable technology.
Besides, if we began planning a trip to Mars right now, by the time the actually went, we would likely have some very sophisticated Rovers. Just imagine what they could do if the whole budget was spent on launching advanced rovers and probes instead of on keeping people alive.
Organisms as a whole do not "learn to adapt." Some organisms possess intelligence which is a trait allowing conscious adaptation to a changing environment. Most just happen to be born with a trait which suits the changing environment. For instance, say a litter of wolves are born at the beginning of the last Ice age. One or 2 of these wolves have thicker coats than the rest. While the warmer temperature were previously suitable, now the colder temperatures kills off the offspring with thin coats and the thick coat pups grow up and pass along that genetic trait to more of it's offspring. The offspring not possessing it die or are less likely to procreate and so on. They just happen to be well suited and have a better chance of passing on advantageous traits.
So you see no reason to try and preserve our environment in a state that suits us well? Frankly I think it is arrogant to decide that we need not do anything because the earth will continue. You are right that the earth has experienced massive changes throughout it's lifespan. That is exactly why we need to understand our impact on the earth. I haven't heard anyone argue that we should save the Earth for the Earth's sake. We need to understand how to keep the earth in a state close to what we've experienced for the last 20,000 years. Does that mean preserving species to maintain their role in an ecosystem? Does that mean reducing carbon emissions into our atmosphere? Does that mean cleaning highly toxic dump sites where only extremophiles can exist? We really don't know do we? And that is exactly why we need to understand our changing world better and try to preserve it best we can until we find out what may alter it past being suitable for human life...
Also we aren't talking mid range Dell's with a 400 watt power supply. We're talking fully geeked out gaming systems with video cards that draw up to 400 watts on their own... Including dual and triple GPU configurations, we're talking systems ranging from 600 watts to 1600 watts.
I have a Droid 3 with a 4 inch screen. It's keyboard makes it bulkier than most phones and way bulkier than an Iphone. It's very easily pocketable so any Iphone with a similar screen size will be even more so.
Sure it's more complicated but is it actually any harder, does it require a larger investment than it did 10 years ago? I ask because there was a time when AMD seemed much more competitive. They were usually a little ways behind but would have big products like the Thunderbird and the X2 pop up every now and then giving Intel a run for their money.
Now we've seen 2 consecutive product releases that pale in comparison to Intel. Bulldozer was supposed to be big.
Intel has way more money to invest in R&D. The newer fabrication methods such as moving to 28 nm seem to be giving everyone trouble, Intel, AMD, Nvidia. Does it cost so much now to develop a chip that a relatively small company like AMD just doesn't have enough money to research these more challenging technologies? After all, Intel is going to release Ivy Bridge in 6 months featuring tri-gate technology and it will be that long before AMD tunes their new architecture.
AMD just seems to be slipping further and further away from Intel and it's sad...
Why does this sound like Barcelona? Granted, Bulldozer doesn't seem to have the same breadth of architectural flaws but still. God I miss the days when AMD came out with the X2 series...
There is just no way AMD can compete with Sandy Bridge. With Ivy Bridge coming up, things are not looking good for AMD. After Barcelona they need to catch up a bit however, the performance difference seems to be increasing compared with Intel's offerings.
Not many people know that Steve Jobs owned Pixar. He funded the company for 10 years after George Lucas had backed out.
Being a 3d artist, I feel like I owe my entire career to his foresight.
James Cameron believes that 3D aids in memory creation. He stated that “ 3D is so close to a real experience that it actually triggers memory creation in a way that 2D viewing doesn’t.” An Advertising study showed approx. the same increased retention in relation to 3D advertising.
I'm waiting for exactly the same thing. The new i5's "sandy bridge" built in graphics are far superior to the Intel HD graphics used in current ep121. Being a digital artist, the lure of a windows-based, touch-screen tablet, that has a Wacom stylus and pressure sensitivity would be a game changer. I could sculpt or sketch digitally while on the train or in a museum or at a bus stop...
Maybe even the turn of the year. I am not optimistic, I just don't see the point of a standalone portable gaming device when we have phones that are running the Unreal 3 engine and Tegra 3 is boasting 5x the processing power of those devices. They need to stop wasting their time developing hardware and start using more of the computing devices we all have in our pockets already.
Funny that you mention it. I've been waiting for the Droid Bionic for close to a month "lost my old droid 1." I can't wait to get one but I should probably revise the way I phrase that.
From: I can't wait to get my new Bionic!
To: I can't wait to be on the pay-for beta team for the new Droid Bionic!
Just to put that in perspective though, I love being an early adopter despite the inevitable problems. It's exciting getting a brand new device with all the bells and whistles and for me I guess it's worth the problems you are guaranteed to run in to...
We need some form of energy to sustain us until other sources of energy such as solar and/or wind become practical. I welcome any innovation that will improve that possibility and this sounds like a potentially relevant advancement that could allow things like hydrogen fuel cell technology to mature.
If you are willing to live a life that in no way utilizes energy from fossil fuels I'll take your perspective seriously...
LOL! I actually reported this email as spam because I too don't have a Neverwinter knights account and haven't visited the forums. So I figured this was just a phishing scam...
Slashdot Mirror
When you're a dell, you're a dell all the way. From your first hard drive fail to your last RMA!
*Snaps fingers and hunches over*
I can't help but wonder if they would do that with Counter-Strike GO. It's interesting valve commented on the sales increase while GO is in Beta.
I'm impressed by the raytracing speeds and all but is it surprising that it has near linear scaling? Raytracing is very well suited for parallel processing and scaling is nearly linear on CPU's if the software is well optimized and you're on a good network.
I'm sorry Michael but you have a poor understanding of rendering technology. They are showing off technology to potential partners and customers. They are not proposing an engine that utilizes the technology which will go to the consumer. It won't look pretty until it is developed as an end product.
What is important is that these rays are being cast in a relatively efficient manner allowing for realtime feedback. An engineer doesn't care specifically what those rays may be used for but just that they are being calculated efficiently and accurately.
Ya see with raytracing you can use the cast rays for many effects like reflection and refraction. But why develop and advanced, layered shading system which uses those rays in all sorts of cool ways if this is just a research project?
This is all still proof of concept. Just the fact that you can raytrace an image like this is impressive. Once realtime raytracing is a reality, then more advanced shading systems will be developed which do more interesting things with those cast rays. An example shown in the article is physically based refraction for glass and water. A more challenging application would be subsurface scattering "light penetrating a surface and bouncing around before it bounces back out, i.e wax," or light dispersion " colored light being separated. The advantages to raytracing are very real. The tests that are run just wont look very special. Another good example is soft shadowing and ambient light. If you have a high detail surface "bricks, cracks mortar and such" These features will really shine. When it's being tested on a level with 60,000 total polygons and only diffuse textures, not so much.
I'm pretty sure they took that into account. They can even reproduce the effects of the moons gravity on our oceans in simulations. The other moons that contain trenches from the pull of a planets gravity "Titan, Europa" are orbiting Saturn which is 95 times the mass of the earth.
Not that it isn't possible. Our scientific theories keep being revised as we learn more but that's just it. It would be unlikely that it is caused by earths gravity and we should invest our research in other possibilities that seem more likely.
Hmm, I missed the original. Thanks for the Dup! Fascinating.
This really is getting ridiculous. I buy an obscene amount of games. Partly because I want to help support artists and creators like myself. That rationale is starting to wear thin for me now.
For instance, I bought Arkham City, an absolutely amazing game. One of the best I've played in years. I got 89% through the whole game "2nd play through, 440 riddler trophies, most of the challenges, all sidequests," Then there was a problem with my internet connection, entire neighborhood went down. After I got my internet back I started Arkham City up again and oh look, my save files disappeared. The reason it disappeared is DRM. Saves are managed by Windows Live and encrypted to be specific to your system. They were trying to keep people from cheating and instead they've ended up punishing people who play their games.
"that should be why the sea life around the place is dying."
For some reason I bothered to click your link to a google search. So where was the substantial article supporting your point? I saw a blog or two, an article from the examiner and some youtube nuclear experts.
While this is something that needs to be researched over the coming decades making poorly informed assumptions doesn't help anyone.
Unity: As well as working on IOS and Android if exporters are purchased. Want to get a kid interested? Tell them that they could put it on their phone and/or sell it in the app store...
It is by far one of the most straightforward applications for game development. The demo scene loads a fully completed level. Press the play button and the map is playable. Press pause and you go back to editing mode. Move some stuff around add or delete lights and press play again to see your changes. There are start to finish level design and mechanics tutorials, a great community, and it is highly intuitive.
This is perfect for teaching a kid how to make games.
I just can't go along with that idea yet...
I want to clarify that I can't think of anything more important to our species than the ability to leave this planet indefinitely. What we have learned about our universe and the geological history of this planet is that eventually something will destroy Earth or at least alter it so drastically that it cannot support human life any longer. The big questions are when and how that will happen. Maybe a giant asteroid will hit us, Yellowstone may blow it's top again, or we damage the current ecosystem so badly that Earth becomes inhospitable. So I really want make clear, I am very pro space travel.
However, that is why we need to be reasonable. We need to gather more information on space in general, test materials that can withstand the extreme conditions in outer space, and research advanced propulsion technologies. This kind of research can be done without human beings physically present. The cost of keeping a sack of meat alive on a 9 month trip to Mars is absurd. If we ever consider spending that much money it should all be spent on research and development until the actual trip to Mars is no longer costly and what is then based on old and reliable technology.
Besides, if we began planning a trip to Mars right now, by the time the actually went, we would likely have some very sophisticated Rovers. Just imagine what they could do if the whole budget was spent on launching advanced rovers and probes instead of on keeping people alive.
Ironically if it was an intern even they would probably refer to it as retouching or painting...
Organisms as a whole do not "learn to adapt." Some organisms possess intelligence which is a trait allowing conscious adaptation to a changing environment. Most just happen to be born with a trait which suits the changing environment. For instance, say a litter of wolves are born at the beginning of the last Ice age. One or 2 of these wolves have thicker coats than the rest. While the warmer temperature were previously suitable, now the colder temperatures kills off the offspring with thin coats and the thick coat pups grow up and pass along that genetic trait to more of it's offspring. The offspring not possessing it die or are less likely to procreate and so on. They just happen to be well suited and have a better chance of passing on advantageous traits. So you see no reason to try and preserve our environment in a state that suits us well? Frankly I think it is arrogant to decide that we need not do anything because the earth will continue. You are right that the earth has experienced massive changes throughout it's lifespan. That is exactly why we need to understand our impact on the earth. I haven't heard anyone argue that we should save the Earth for the Earth's sake. We need to understand how to keep the earth in a state close to what we've experienced for the last 20,000 years. Does that mean preserving species to maintain their role in an ecosystem? Does that mean reducing carbon emissions into our atmosphere? Does that mean cleaning highly toxic dump sites where only extremophiles can exist? We really don't know do we? And that is exactly why we need to understand our changing world better and try to preserve it best we can until we find out what may alter it past being suitable for human life...
Also we aren't talking mid range Dell's with a 400 watt power supply. We're talking fully geeked out gaming systems with video cards that draw up to 400 watts on their own... Including dual and triple GPU configurations, we're talking systems ranging from 600 watts to 1600 watts.
I almost can't believe there wasn't a fire...
I have a Droid 3 with a 4 inch screen. It's keyboard makes it bulkier than most phones and way bulkier than an Iphone. It's very easily pocketable so any Iphone with a similar screen size will be even more so.
Sure it's more complicated but is it actually any harder, does it require a larger investment than it did 10 years ago? I ask because there was a time when AMD seemed much more competitive. They were usually a little ways behind but would have big products like the Thunderbird and the X2 pop up every now and then giving Intel a run for their money.
Now we've seen 2 consecutive product releases that pale in comparison to Intel. Bulldozer was supposed to be big.
Intel has way more money to invest in R&D. The newer fabrication methods such as moving to 28 nm seem to be giving everyone trouble, Intel, AMD, Nvidia. Does it cost so much now to develop a chip that a relatively small company like AMD just doesn't have enough money to research these more challenging technologies? After all, Intel is going to release Ivy Bridge in 6 months featuring tri-gate technology and it will be that long before AMD tunes their new architecture.
AMD just seems to be slipping further and further away from Intel and it's sad...
Why does this sound like Barcelona? Granted, Bulldozer doesn't seem to have the same breadth of architectural flaws but still. God I miss the days when AMD came out with the X2 series... There is just no way AMD can compete with Sandy Bridge. With Ivy Bridge coming up, things are not looking good for AMD. After Barcelona they need to catch up a bit however, the performance difference seems to be increasing compared with Intel's offerings.
Not many people know that Steve Jobs owned Pixar. He funded the company for 10 years after George Lucas had backed out. Being a 3d artist, I feel like I owe my entire career to his foresight.
James Cameron believes that 3D aids in memory creation. He stated that “ 3D is so close to a real experience that it actually triggers memory creation in a way that 2D viewing doesn’t.” An Advertising study showed approx. the same increased retention in relation to 3D advertising.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/19/idUS209878+19-May-2011+MW20110519
I don't doubt that it can help education.
I'm waiting for exactly the same thing. The new i5's "sandy bridge" built in graphics are far superior to the Intel HD graphics used in current ep121. Being a digital artist, the lure of a windows-based, touch-screen tablet, that has a Wacom stylus and pressure sensitivity would be a game changer. I could sculpt or sketch digitally while on the train or in a museum or at a bus stop...
Maybe even the turn of the year. I am not optimistic, I just don't see the point of a standalone portable gaming device when we have phones that are running the Unreal 3 engine and Tegra 3 is boasting 5x the processing power of those devices. They need to stop wasting their time developing hardware and start using more of the computing devices we all have in our pockets already.
Funny that you mention it. I've been waiting for the Droid Bionic for close to a month "lost my old droid 1." I can't wait to get one but I should probably revise the way I phrase that.
From: I can't wait to get my new Bionic!
To: I can't wait to be on the pay-for beta team for the new Droid Bionic!
Just to put that in perspective though, I love being an early adopter despite the inevitable problems. It's exciting getting a brand new device with all the bells and whistles and for me I guess it's worth the problems you are guaranteed to run in to...
Man claiming *ownership of* half of Facebook *has* suffered *a* setback....
Anyone else not get that the first time you read the headline?
We need some form of energy to sustain us until other sources of energy such as solar and/or wind become practical. I welcome any innovation that will improve that possibility and this sounds like a potentially relevant advancement that could allow things like hydrogen fuel cell technology to mature.
If you are willing to live a life that in no way utilizes energy from fossil fuels I'll take your perspective seriously...
LOL! I actually reported this email as spam because I too don't have a Neverwinter knights account and haven't visited the forums. So I figured this was just a phishing scam...