andrel wrote:
>> I think is that ATM GPU's are useful for trangulations and
>> that the  result is near real life. As far as I have heard the
>> rendering is less physical correct and more is faked. I though they
>> were a bit lacking in multiple reflection and refraction, in media
>> and possibly also in versatility of procedural textures. I am not a
>> gamer, so I don't actually know for sure.
>>
> So, point me to where I talked exclusively about game tech.

"less physical correct", "lacking reflection and refraction", "lacking 
media" and "lacking procedural textures" are all indeed game tech 
limitations (for now) that don't show up at all in the "physically 
correct" path tracer running on GPU I linked to.

> But let me try to explain again: what you pointed at and other things I 
> have seen so far is that GPUs are used for a limited set of primitives 
> only, modelling a subset of physical behaviour. Even if they claim to be 
> physically accurate in practice they aren't

GPU's don't claim anything.  General purpose algorithms making use of 
their sheer math processing power do.

I thought by physically correct you were talking about materials or 
light propagation behavior, not every model being made of from polygons.

>  Again what I have seen and understood is that up till now POV is more 
> physical complete (disclaimer: I have not seen everything that is out 
> there.). Hence POV still has a place.

and I hope that place is a GPU.

> In order to get more 'realistic' games the GPUs have been optimized to 
> render textures and fake reflections and shadows. They can be used as 
> FPU replacement for certain tasks, but they are not perfect for general 
> processing (yet). That is as far as I know. There may have been 
> significant advances that I have missed because I am not a gamer and 
> hence do not follow the developments closely.

I'm not talking about games at all.  I only hinted at the fact that 
several other raytracers are beginning to use the GPU for their 
calculations, including full raytraced reflections, refractions, 
mesh-based lighting etc.  They are not using the GPU as a mere game 
scanline engine,  they are just general purpose programs (actually, 
parts of it) running on GPU.

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