NVIDIA's real time ray tracing demo from yesterday, May 15, 2012

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blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
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Didn't Intel show a raytraced version of Wolfienstein running on Larabee a few years ago? If memory serves me correctly, it was much closer to gameplay than this (granted it might have been running on $10,000 worth of hardware)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2VB8vGIbwY

8 Knights Ferry cards, 720p. You can see the cards at about 28 seconds in. If you don't want to watch the video, you can simply read Intel's ray tracing page instead: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/tracing-rays-through-the-cloud/

That is the updated version; the older version you are referring to is probably this one with a bunch of guys running around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVZDH15TRro
 
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althaz

Member
Aug 23, 2006
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Ray tracing is awesome and unquestionably the future (if you don't think it's the future, that just means you need to educate yourself further), but I doubt we'll see it used in games in the next three years. I could see things maybe starting to happen in five though. Hopefully in 10 years we'll all be playing games with ray-traced graphics on the GPU integrated into our CPUs.
 

Lonbjerg

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 2009
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Ray tracing is awesome and unquestionably the future (if you don't think it's the future, that just means you need to educate yourself further), but I doubt we'll see it used in games in the next three years. I could see things maybe starting to happen in five though. Hopefully in 10 years we'll all be playing games with ray-traced graphics on the GPU integrated into our CPUs.

I hope I can get a CPU without a crappy IGP...dedicated chips for the performance win ;)
 

-Slacker-

Golden Member
Feb 24, 2010
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Awesome! Does this meant video games that use this technique aren't far off from being made?
 

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
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Awesome! Does this meant video games that use this technique aren't far off from being made?

It is technically possible already (see earlier in this thread about Intel raytracing demos on 8 Knights Ferry cards, which I'm guessing is equal a 2-3 GTX 680s in SLI or something like that, when it comes to raytracing), but the market has to be able to support it. Gamedevs are heavily into cross-platform development now, which means coding for the weakest link, which means consoles. So until consoles gets much more powerful, we won't see anything like this. Rumors have it that next-gen consoles will be only midrange at best.

Indie game developers might code for PCs specifically and adopt newer technologies faster, though.

If you want to hear what some industry folks have to say, you may be interested in: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Editor...ce-Intel-Graphics-Ray-Tracing-Voxels-and-more
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-03-13-an-epic-interview-with-tim-sweeney
http://games.ign.com/articles/119/1196638p1.html
 
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Pottuvoi

Senior member
Apr 16, 2012
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Awesome! Does this meant video games that use this technique aren't far off from being made?
Well, you can make a game that uses Optix quite easily.
Although at the moment it is more feasible to use ray-tracing for more limited effects, ie shadows, ambient occlusion or reflections.

Outside the graphics it is nice for AI and such.
 

hawtdawg

Golden Member
Jun 4, 2005
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If the next gen consoles don't use ray-tracing (and i seriously doubt they will) then we wont see ray tracing for another 10 years probably.
 

reallyscrued

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2004
2,617
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The OP video is unreal, can't wait until this is fully utilized.



I thought physics didn't matter in gaming ? ;)

You might wanna watch the videos ;)

Besides, then PhysX matters...it's in ARMIII...you know the mil-sim for men that grew tired of the kids in BF3 ;)

I hope I can get a CPU without a crappy IGP...dedicated chips for the performance win ;)

Your constant use of winking emoticons make me dismiss you as an idiot.

;)
 

Pottuvoi

Senior member
Apr 16, 2012
416
2
81
If the next gen consoles don't use ray-tracing (and i seriously doubt they will) then we wont see ray tracing for another 10 years probably.
You can raytrace using either pixel shaders or gpgpu already, so it's up to developers if they do.
Actually parallax occlusion mapping, screen space reflections and similar techniques are already a limited methods of ray tracing.
 

Lonbjerg

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 2009
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Funny sidenote

When NVIDIA first showcased destruction in PhysX, most people where "MEH":

Add shiny glass...and people go "WOW".

LOL...just made my day!
 

Lonbjerg

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 2009
4,419
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But.. it's shiny. ;)

I know...people are blinded by "SHINEY"...and not their understanding of the underlying technologies.

I bet you could make 2 tech demos.

The one would demonstrate a fully functinal, physically simulated world...but look very plain.

Then the other would be simple scripted physics...but wiht GLASS..and SHINEYS...AND PANDAS!!!

And the masses would marvel at the latter...and not understand the former.

Sad...but true :(
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,656
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Ray tracing was the future when Amiga was a contender, problem is it's still the future. Will be fantastic when $100-300 graphics hardware can finally power something like that demo.

Ah, a fellow Amigan -- I was thinking the same thing and remember how ray tracing individual frames of an animation would take hours back in the Amiga days. And now we're to the point where not only is it real-time, but at much higher resolutions and color depth than the Amiga.

Remember..how it took hours sometimes to render one single image? :)
The term "real time ray-tracing" is almost frightening realizing how far we have come since Amiga times in terms of computer power...

I sure do!
 
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Lonbjerg

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 2009
4,419
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Ah, a fellow Amigan -- I was thinking the same thing and remember how ray tracing individual frames of an animation would take hours back in the Amiga days. And now we're to the point where not only is it real-time, but at much higher resolutions and color depth than the Amiga.



I sure do!

I think many of the older posters inhere have dabbled with Amigas ;)
(My last the A1200 had a GVP add-in baord with a GVP A1230-40 add-in baord with the 68040 Co-CPU + 8 MB FAST MEM and a 2.5" 340 MB HD...it was a beast)

But we remember those days better than they were...just look at one of my favourite games:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMXL6rCltzY

I could not game like that today :eek:
 

reallyscrued

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2004
2,617
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Funny sidenote

When NVIDIA first showcased destruction in PhysX, most people where "MEH":

Add shiny glass...and people go "WOW".

LOL...just made my day!

nVidia first showcased PhysX? Do you remember who Ageia was?

And if adding transparent glass and advanced lighting was what it takes to make the effects of physX look stunningly realistic, then you are grossly undercutting the addition of 'shiny glass' by implying the masses are dumb and can't think for themselves (moths to a flame?).


I guess you'd never care if real-time graphics reached this plateau:

300px-Glasses_800_edit.png