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What will 3D rendering be capable of in the future?


gipper51
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This post sort of belongs in the hardware section, but I think this is the better place for it. With the changes happening in computer hardware (mainly processors), what do you think computer graphics will be capable of in the near future? Or what would you like to see software be capable of with the new hardware to take advantage of?

 

Just think - In mid 2003 the fastest processors were 32 bit single core chunks of silicon. Fast forward just two years and we now have 64 bit dual core models out that are starting at under $300 (when the Pentium D actually hits retail channels). For about a $500 motherboard and processor upgrade you can turn your average desktop into a machine with almost as much power as a high dollar dual processor system.

 

Since software is not really made yet to take advantage of all this power, what do you think will be improved once programs like Max are written to utilize 64 bit and other advances?

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Sorry, I guess I should have narrowed the focus of my question a bit more. I don't mean "what will 3D be like in 10 years", but rather in the very near future. Let's say the first verion of Max to fully integrate 64 bit capabilities. Or maybe what is capable with the hardware that is out right now if the software were able to take full advantage of what's available? The software is always a step or two behind the hardware.

 

I apologize for asking a repeat question. I pretty much given up on trying to find specific info using the search buttons :D

 

Kind of off topic, but has anybody else read performance reviews of the Athlon 64 X2 chips? Dual Xeon owners beware!!! AMD is gunning for you :D

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I would love to see the developers of Vray and Maxwell kiss & make up, and combine the two renderers to make the worlds easiest, fastest, and best quality renderer. All in a stand alone application.

 

Oh... I just realized thats kind of off topic & this is more about hardware...OH well! :p

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real time radiosity or GI, real time regflections and refractions, real time area shadows, real time many things. Able to put 10 million ppolygons in a single scene. THe graphics card would do actual rendering and help the cpus at render time, graphics card with multiple rendering processors that each has multiple cores like the Pure Card only not as expensive and 10 times faster and not restricted to a particular software...Easier licensing, cheaper software, not charging you for every single core on this system...

Trillion gegabyte hard drives, that run at 30K GB/second, 64 GB Ram that can be used by Photoshop (still stuck in 2GB), all in a portable notebook that I can take with me to Lebanon when my work permit expires and the INS forces me to leave my house, my computer, my yard, my work, and my life...

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vray will render in seconds... vray will be obsolete, max also, as well as maya. i guess there will be a new software, or maybe sketchup will upgrade. there'll be no more pentium, even xeon... 128 bit maybe... ten years is unpredictable... maybe we can render in handheld devices... were never sure with the progress, but one thing we're sure, all cgartist will cope to those changes...

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Well since we’re day dreaming I think the next big leap in visualization is going to be VR. There are already several companies that have working VR setups that are run off of standard PC's. I think in the next 5-10 years were going to be immersed in a completely interactive virtual environment either through a head set or through projection technology. Well be able to put the client inside his building and let him walk around, or fly around it with 6.1 surround sound. We will not only be creating the building but the environment it lives in. With the development of programs like Maxwell and Vray rendering great looking still images will almost be an automatic thing. Animations will become completely realistic with the power and scope of what you find in Hollywood CG. Our profession is going to completely change as the computer becomes more powerful and we will have to change with it or face the pink slip!

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Ihab hits the nail on the head, IMHO. Real-time is the key word.

I also think 3d will be much more present in the design process, instead of just being the glossy pic you make at the end of that process.

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Personally, I doubt there will be nearly as much progress in the next ten years as there were in the last ten, at least at the consumer level. I could be wrong of course, but it seems to me that hardware developers are much more focused on the bulk of users who don't do high end graphics. Just look at how long it is taking 64 bit to catch on. Real time will continue to be pushed, but mainly because that is so important to the computer game industry. GPU rendering may come around for us and that will be great, but compared to what happened in the last ten years (or especially the ten before that) that's not much.

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remember the days where the ultimate in graphics was a square being hit by tow rectangles? that was loads of fun too!!!

in fact the ones here

http://www.videogamecritic.net/5200fl.htm

are pretty much advanced technologically...

(I am sorry about all the keyboard mistakes in my posts but they gave me a seven years old keyboard and stubid 8 years old screens too)

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without real world material data all those HOPES will be moot. Why? We'd still be using 'material lighting models' (Torrance-Sparrow,Phong,Gouraud etc.) instead of real material data from goniophotoreflectometers. The problem is the complxity of the task as well as the expense of doing all this scanning. The incorporation of sub-surface scattering models are good but we still do not know enough how real world material actually interacts with light and how we actually perceive that. This I think is the Holy Grail of arch-vis.

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Have any of you seen the unveiling of the new Play station 3? I was amazed by its power; it's capable of doing what my dual processor workstation that cost $6000 would have a really hard time with. It's using one of IBM's cell processors and it has some kind of special video card in it but for $300 you can get a platform that blows away most render machines. This type of technology needs to enter the architectural world, can you imagine designing an environment with the power of real time rendering, that's the future!

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Well LOL...they were gonioreflectometers at first then they became goniophotoreflectometers for more precise mesurements of the materials. But yeah these things you don't really think about until discussed unless of course you talk to Global Illumination researchers.

 

We actually have a whole set of material data now that's fairly complete but that's 'classified' since the military is the one using this info. Too bad though for us we only got these:

 

http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/CAVE/curet/

 

The 'offloading' of graphic routines have been happening since the first GeForce but Cg and Rendermaonkey changed a lot of things so maybe hoepfully in the future, we can use the Quads of GPU's for rendering alone and everything in real-time. Hell Instant radiosity and raytracing is here now but you need a lot of power for that.

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