actually, alternative computers such as quantum computers may achieve
such high speeds in the not-so-distant future once they leave the
academia stage and can be put to real uses.

Abe Heckenbach wrote:
> 
> Alright, so you have a good point, but I still think it would be a cool
> thing to discuss with interested people! And I didn't mean to imply that
> it could run a single 1.5Ghz P4(I just said that to show how quickly CPU
> power is increasing),
> but maybe in say, 5 years(imagine 20 10Ghz P10 processors running on a
> linux cluster(200,000Mhz) plus possible software improvements, and/or
> specialized hardware(like maybe multiple PCI cards that could act as
> addition Floating.point power).
> 
> To quote my original message,
> "I would like ... to discuss virtual reality, (everything necessary to a
> finished VRE Setup(hardware and software requirements), but completely
> from a theoretical point of view)"
> by this I meant not that a VRE setup would use ray tracing, just that it
> would be cool to discuss different issues concerning it.
> 
> PS: And I didn't mean to be rude or anything.. sorry if it seemed that
> way.
> 
>          Abeh
> 
> Simon Lemieux wrote:
> >
> > > Simon> thanx, but the reason I want to use ray tracing is for the
> > > realisium, if virtual reality mean triing to trick the participant into
> > > believing he is in a different env., then ray tracing just seems
> > > right(since it models light rays and all),  Also I realise that
> > > computers are just not fast enough today, but they will be in the maybe
> > > not so distance future(Intel's P4, to be released this year, will be
> > > 1.5GHz+). Plus you can also make dedicated hardware, and software
> > > improvments. But hey, thanx anyways, I will read up more on openGL.
> >
> > In a not so <great> distant future??
> > Look here I got a PII@433Mhz and I get One frame of Povray for a Minimum of "A
> > few seconds" some time "A few minutes" and rarely but it happens "A few hours or
> > so..."
> > The eye perceive about 30 frames per second...  which means you would have to
> > render every frame in 1/30 seconds...  that is if you divide the speed of my
> > computer (433) for let say a 1 second render of povray by (1/30) you get the
> > computer of your dream and it's probably not a Pentium since it should have
> > 12990Mhz!!! (<currentSpee>/(1/<fps>)) = (433/(1/30)) = 12990Mhz!
> > And a one second render of povray with my 433 isn't worth looking at...  You
> > need at least a minute to about what you could get with OpenGL...
> > (<dreamMhz>*<secs> = 12990Mhz * 60 = 779400Mhz....)
> >
> > This... is... INSANE!
> > We won't be living in that dream future!
> >
> > Believe me for your Virtual Reality, OpenGL is the thing...  but I like adding
> > Povray textures, povray light effects into OpenGL...  yeah, it's a fake, but I
> > can't even see the difference when it's well programmed!
> >
> > I hope I didn't scare you tho,
> >   Keep trying,
> >         Simon
> >
> > PS:  Mmmm  779400Mhz  8P~~~~~~

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