Raytracing and moore's law
Moderators: jesterKing, stiv
Raytracing and moore's law
I know that raytracers are slow compared to scanline renderers but I wonder if that will matter...
If you consider moores law that computer speeds will double every 18 months (the basic gist) Will raytracers end up being fast enough on normal pc's
If you consider moores law that computer speeds will double every 18 months (the basic gist) Will raytracers end up being fast enough on normal pc's
Re: Raytracing and moore's law
that has already happened.ideasman wrote:I know that raytracers are slow compared to scanline renderers but I wonder if that will matter...
If you consider moores law that computer speeds will double every 18 months (the basic gist) Will raytracers end up being fast enough on normal pc's
just a matter of how much time you want to spend on your renderings to finish.
Re: Raytracing and moore's law
ideasman wrote:I know that raytracers are slow compared to scanline renderers but I wonder if that will matter...
If you consider moores law that computer speeds will double every 18 months (the basic gist) Will raytracers end up being fast enough on normal pc's
Ray-tracing will never be constant time
efficient, but better hardware will make it seem more so and
people's inability to perceive the difference between 3 levels of
reflection and N levels of reflection will rule out the need to do
accurate ray-tracing.. When designing hardware components one
can only think about it "what is really needed to get the effect of
the desired result" because getting the precise result in Constant or Linear time is impossible considering the behaviour of the algorithm..
Moore's Law works on pretty much everything
You seem to forget that Moore's Law works on pretty much everything...
So, when your PC is 2 times as powerful in 8 months, the scenes may require that much more power too!
So, when your PC is 2 times as powerful in 8 months, the scenes may require that much more power too!
Re: Raytracing and moore's law
Well Moores law isn't exactly a law, more of an observation. He studied it, and predicted that the time/development would be as stated. I'm not too sure what you mean by "fast enough on normal pc's". But from what the others have said, I agree, it depends how much you are willing to pay, I don't think raytracing is ever "fast" enough. Hell, when the average user can raytrace in realtime, it still wont' be fast enough, humans are lazy by nature, and not many of them like to wait for things. Also, time is money, so we want things faster and faster.ideasman wrote:I know that raytracers are slow compared to scanline renderers but I wonder if that will matter...
If you consider moores law that computer speeds will double every 18 months (the basic gist) Will raytracers end up being fast enough on normal pc's
I'm sure if you have a renderfarm, some basic raytracing wont' be that much of an issue for you, but remember, big time movie projects, all have to wait ages, even with arrays and arrays of machines, it takes a while to raytrace.
So what am I saying?..I don't really know myself...haha
Na I'm kidding...raytracing will always increase in speed, maybe someone will create a newer algorith(like that other post on soft shadows)..that will speed up raytracing, or some new method of rendering faster. It can be something as little as a new algorithm, or new microarchitecture technolgoy that can break moores law.
But moores followers, and most comp-sci's agree, its only time before we break the "law"(observation).
Thats it for me..
-Brij
Re: Moore's Law works on pretty much everything
And this again is like Blinn's LawSmerity wrote:You seem to forget that Moore's Law works on pretty much everything...
So, when your PC is 2 times as powerful in 8 months, the scenes may require that much more power too!

Once we get Raytracers using the current Graphic Cards power to help rendering a Scene we may have that kind of power.
Some raytracers already exist that use the latest NVidia / ATI Cards for Shadows and Light calculations and they are really fast.
The same scene when rendered with only the CPU took 43 minutes while rendering with the CPU + Graphic Card took 37 seconds.
I hope to see a time where Yafray will use the Graphic Card power to reduce the time to render, it would improve our times to make some work or even learn some new stuff, big time.
Some raytracers already exist that use the latest NVidia / ATI Cards for Shadows and Light calculations and they are really fast.
The same scene when rendered with only the CPU took 43 minutes while rendering with the CPU + Graphic Card took 37 seconds.
I hope to see a time where Yafray will use the Graphic Card power to reduce the time to render, it would improve our times to make some work or even learn some new stuff, big time.
How to use a Blender:
Put your model, rig, animation and textures in the Blender, turn the Blender on and wait for it to Render, then turn the Blender off and show it to your friends.
Put your model, rig, animation and textures in the Blender, turn the Blender on and wait for it to Render, then turn the Blender off and show it to your friends.
I will try to find it, but I didn't bookmark it, so it might take a while.rednelb wrote:rcas: please can you provide the link to this raytracer you are talking about? the one with gpu utilization.
thanks!
One thing I know is that it was posted at elysiun forum if I recall.
I even think it was posted in these forum as well, not sure though.
Once I find it I will post it.
Someone was already doing a export script for Blender, very nice

How to use a Blender:
Put your model, rig, animation and textures in the Blender, turn the Blender on and wait for it to Render, then turn the Blender off and show it to your friends.
Put your model, rig, animation and textures in the Blender, turn the Blender on and wait for it to Render, then turn the Blender off and show it to your friends.
tHERES NVidiea Gelarto-
and another open source one that used DirectX only.
http://www.bee-www.com/parthenon/index.htm
and another open source one that used DirectX only.
http://www.bee-www.com/parthenon/index.htm
Yup, this was one of those, but there was another one using OpenGL, but I can't find the link anywhere.ideasman wrote: another open source one that used DirectX only.
http://www.bee-www.com/parthenon/index.htm
How to use a Blender:
Put your model, rig, animation and textures in the Blender, turn the Blender on and wait for it to Render, then turn the Blender off and show it to your friends.
Put your model, rig, animation and textures in the Blender, turn the Blender on and wait for it to Render, then turn the Blender off and show it to your friends.