[ars] Caustic Graphics launches real-time ray tracing platform - Overclock.net

Jarhead · 07-04-09

Quote:

Last month, I covered the launch of real-time ray tracing startup Caustic Graphics, and I noted the skeptical chatter that I'd heard about the company's prospects in the graphics community. In brief, anyone who's pitching a custom coprocessor on an add-in board has a difficult road ahead of them in the current, price-sensitive market. When you factor in the challenges of doing real-time ray tracing, plus the fact that most of the visuals produced by the technique can be serviceably approximated in games by traditional rasterization, it was tough to see where Caustic could have a chance at success.

But after a visit to Caustic's San Francisco headquarters this past Friday, I came away with a much better understanding of what the startup is trying to achieve.

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SSJ5Broli · 07-04-09

True, they can fake it, but in the end of the day if we need game graphics to move forward, raytracing is something that's going to have to be implemented at some point,
because you can't fake all of it.

Varjo · 07-04-09

ray tracing, I love you

[Teh Root] · 07-04-09

Ray Tracing is one of the most complex things devised. It's more complicated then rendering Polygons, but looks more realistic. Imagine Crysis redone in Ray Tracing or Far Cry 2. You have to redraw every single line of light back to it's origin however.

mothergoose729 · 07-04-09

Current graphics processor will need at least five more years before the benefits of ray tracing will outweigh the cons though. Currently I think current games have a lot more room to optimize shaders, lighting effects, and the most important one, physics (not just in objects, but in cloth and water, and hair most specifically). 3D geometry (like what DX11 might bring with tessellation) can use some improving too. Each of which would could bring a better visual experience for a tenth of the performance cost IMO. Good to see people working on it, I just believe this stuff is still considerably ahead of its time though.

[Teh Root] · 07-04-09

Ray Tracing is still amazing. The cmplex mathmatic proceses used to trace EACH in
dividual light beam backwards is amazing.

Quoted from WEikipedia:

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Optical ray tracing describes a method for producing visual images constructed in 3D computer graphics environments, with more photorealism than either ray casting or scanline rendering techniques. It works by tracing a path from an imaginary eye through each pixel in a virtual screen, and calculating the color of the object visible through it.

Scenes in raytracing are described mathematically by a programmer or by a visual artist (typically using intermediary tools). Scenes may also incorporate data from images and models captured by means such as digital photography.

Typically, each ray must be tested for intersection with some subset of all the objects in the scene. Once the nearest object has been identified, the algorithm will estimate the incoming light at the point of intersection, examine the material properties of the object, and combine this information to calculate the final color of the pixel. Certain illumination algorithms and reflective or translucent materials may require more rays to be re-cast into the scene.

It may at first seem counterintuitive or "backwards" to send rays away from the camera, rather than into it (as actual light does in reality), but doing so is in fact many orders of magnitude more efficient. Since the overwhelming majority of light rays from a given light source do not make it directly into the viewer's eye, a "forward" simulation could potentially waste a tremendous amount of computation on light paths that are never recorded. A computer simulation that starts by casting rays from the light source is called Photon mapping, and it takes much longer than a comparable ray trace.

Therefore, the shortcut taken in raytracing is to presuppose that a given ray intersects the view frame. After either a maximum number of reflections or a ray traveling a certain distance without intersection, the ray ceases to travel and the pixel's value is updated. The light intensity of this pixel is computed using a number of algorithms, which may include the classic rendering algorithm and may also incorporate techniques such as radiosity.

ChielScape · 07-04-09

i hope they go the way of ageia... get bought out by nvidia, while ATI develops a counterpart to compete.

SyncMaster753 · 07-04-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChielScape

i hope they go the way of ageia... get bought out by nvidia, while ATI develops a counterpart to compete.

or vise versa

in reality the company is probably hoping to gain interest from either intel/nvidia/ati. it's unlikely that they would survive on their own.

ChielScape · 07-04-09

well, not just that, but if they're bought out the logic will be integrated in next gen GPUs, instead of being an add-in board. just like PhysX went from that to integrated.
and however much i love dedicated coprocessors (im thinking of getting an old ageia card) integration is probably the only way for it to reach the masses, so game developers can finally start implementing it.

[Teh Root] · 07-04-09

Ray Tracingh is to much work for a single GPU each Cuastic Board has 640 Parallel Proceesors, all it does is the calculations for the lines and nothing else. BT, the company is mostly made up of former Apple Engineers

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[ars] Caustic Graphics launches real-time ray tracing platform

07-04-09	#7 (permalink)
ChielScape Over 9000. Join Date: May 2007 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 9,234 Rep: 682 Unique Rep: 468 Trader Rating: 0	i hope they go the way of ageia... get bought out by nvidia, while ATI develops a counterpart to compete.

07-04-09	#9 (permalink)
ChielScape Over 9000. Join Date: May 2007 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 9,234 Rep: 682 Unique Rep: 468 Trader Rating: 0	well, not just that, but if they're bought out the logic will be integrated in next gen GPUs, instead of being an add-in board. just like PhysX went from that to integrated. and however much i love dedicated coprocessors (im thinking of getting an old ageia card) integration is probably the only way for it to reach the masses, so game developers can finally start implementing it.

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