At last week's Siggraph, hardware vendors were promising near-realtime raytraced renderings. In all cases, they are using GPUs, the CPUs of graphics boards to get the needed speed for processing data.
Here's a sampling of the claims:
- StudioGPU matches their MachStudio Pro software with ATI's FirePro V8750 3D graphics board "to deliver real-time and near real-time workflow performance on a desktop workstation." $4,999.
- NVIDIA introduces their OptiX ray tracing engine "as the world’s first interactive ray tracing engine to leverage the GPU." Price not announced.
- Caustic Graphics announced its CausticRT package already last year as "is the world's only massively accelerated raytracing system," but now they have lined up some names: LightWork Design, Robert McNeel & Assoc, Realtime Technology AG, Right Hemisphere, and Splutterfish, as well as interest from Autodesk and its "jaw-dropping architectural design demo." Price not announced.
$5000 this year; $500 next year? And then someone will figure out how to do it in just software, and then it will all shift back to the CPU and cost $0.
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