[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Ray traced environments

[Damion Schubert]

On 3/19/07, Jeffrey Kesselman <jeffpk at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 3/17/07, John Buehler <johnbue at msn.com> wrote:
> >
> > 2. Is there any real value in going with raytracing?  Are
> photo-realistic
> > environments a niche feature for games?  Is this the point where the
> visuals
> > just make the rest of the game look bad by comparison?
>
> Question  2a:
> With all the multi-pass rendering tricks now available and fast thanks
> to programmable GPUs, is there any significant [b]value[/b] to ray
> tracing any more?


One of the more fascinating talks I went to at GDC this year was a talk
behind the art director of marketing for "Gears of War".  Surprising
revelation:
the "mad world" commercial we all know and love was shot entirely in
engine.  (Link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrbGEFgI8 )

The gist was that it is now so easy to do top quality graphics with modern
GPUs, but it is becoming increasingly harder to replicate what a good
GPU & Shader system can do in a package like Maya.

--d