[Bf-funboard] GPU accelerated rendering

[Luke Wenke]

If there is a shader language that is also supported by ATI cards then that 
should be used. At the moment there is GPU accelerated rendering to some 
degree... you can save opengl versions of the animations to avi. This could 
be extended so that this includes things like bump-mapping, procedural 
textures, etc. Apparently some of the new cards support floating point 
colour and high dynamic range lighting, etc, as well as simulating 
refraction of bumpy glass or water or heat. So the quality of the output of 
the new cards would approach what blender can render in software. And of 
course, 3d hardware can do anti-aliasing, etc.
The GPU rendering could be used for real-time previews as well as the final 
render, although at max quality the final render might be 1 frame per 10 
seconds or something.