Ray-tracing graphics on show at Cebit

[danrok]

From the front page:
http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/content/view/2185/1/

Comments?

[skool h8r]

Wow! So is this gonna be the way forward? Well, personally, i see it as being a long time before it's used in games. It's been used for 3D rendering for absolutely years now though.

[danrok]

It's the only way to get true realism, in water and anything reflective, transparent, etc.

[Favu]

AIUI it is also done for rendering the textures for most computer games before hand, isn't it? But doing it on the fly is rather nifty

[danrok]

Not really. Realistic looking textures are often manipulated photos.

You're probably thinking of lighting effects and static shadows, which are calculated when a map is compiled. That's more of a rough emulation of ray-tracing.

Most effects relating to light are only approximate simulations of real world physics. This is why water still looks a bit crap and not realistic.

In the real world, when you look at a glass of water, the light plays around as you move your head or the light source moves. It is possible to recreate that precisely using maths, and lots of it, this is what ray-tracing is all about.

It is possible to render an entire scene using ray-tracing only, not just the shiny stuff, but all surfaces. Afterall, when you look at something, you are really just looking at rays of light.

[Favu]

Originally Posted by danrok

You're probably thinking of lighting effects and static shadows, which are calculated when a map is compiled. That's more of a rough emulation of ray-tracing.

That is what I was referring to, aiiii