[Bf-funboard] GPU accelerated rendering

[car]

> Okay, this is getting rediculus. I have been interested in GPU 
> rendering for blender for some time. And I a have researched it quite 
> alot. I must say that I am rather suprised at how little work it 
> really takes. Basicly there are two ways of doing GPU rendering:
>
> OpenGL + Cg (or equivalent)  -  In this type of rendering, the 
> renderer uses OpenGL to draw the scene and Cg (Nvidia's free GPU 
> programming language)  for shading. This is the fastest,  but is the 
> hardest to get raytracing and GI working in.
>
> Cg - Uses only Cg for rendering. Basicly all the triangle data is 
> handed to the GPU via a texture, and then each and each output pixel 
> is calculated in the GPU. For more information look up Purcell's 
> documents under raytracing on www.gpgpu.org.
>
>
> It can be done. It takes a lot of work, and can be very frustrating 
> (Cg is a pain to debug). But I would be willing to work with someone 
> on this project.
>
> Note: the minimum requirements for somthing like this would be GeForce 
> FX ($100) or equivalent.

My only problem with this is ... nothing at all. IF it means we have to 
get a real card to use this kind of speed then I am all for it. Apples 
Motion has preformed the same thing that Blender will have to do, and 
force the user to get a good card if they want to use the great GPU 
features. Now blender could still work with out the GPU render for 
those that can not or will not upgrade, and that is fine my tablet pc 
will still be happy. But GPU rendering should not be stopped, it should 
become the defacto in Blender, as Blender is made for Speed and should 
stay that way.