[Bf-funboard] GPU accelerated rendering

Timothy Baldridge tbaldridge at alertacademy.com
Fri Oct 22 17:47:57 CEST 2004


Another thing to consider at the same time, is the possibility of 
multiple cards in one machine. OpenVidia (look in google for their page) 
put six or so FX5200  cards in one box. I know you run into bandwidth 
issues sometimes, but it could be worked out. It is possible to address 
each card seperatly if a seperate process is used for each (in Linux 
that is). Anyway, somthing to think about.

tbc++


car wrote:

>> 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.
>
>
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