Most Graphics Cards have just become (kind of) Obsolete thanks to Direct X 12 Ray Tracing Extension and Nvidia RTX with GameWorks 2.0

[DuckDodgers]

The good old Quake 2 has already been modded with brute force path-tracing -- ugly and beautiful at the same time:

 

 

[kokakolia]

On 3/22/2018 at 1:44 AM, leadeater said:

Also known as fun killers

LMAO...killjoys or buzzkills is what I had in mind. 

[Beskamir]

Do I have to mention that you can write a raytracer in a shader and it can be "real time" if the scene's small enough or you've got a nice accelerated data structure? Honestly not sure what's super "impressive" here other than it just being a really well developed university intro to computer graphics assignment with some AI to allow for fewer samples.

[kirashi]

Um, technically speaking, all hardware is obsolete 6-18 months before it goes into production, depending on how far in advance a manufacturer has already planned in their R&D department.

[DrMacintosh]

12 hours ago, kirashi said:

Um, technically speaking, all hardware is obsolete 6-18 months before it goes into production, depending on how far in advance a manufacturer has already planned in their R&D department.

Apple would like to have a word with you. 

 

Apple holds replacement parts for their products and only makes them "obsolete" once the device can no longer be serviced by them. 

The most recent Mac to be made obsolete are the 2011 MacBooks and iMacs. The most recent obsolete iPhone is the iPhone 4

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624 

[Kamina]

Seems like a long way to go for me to even care.

[kirashi]

3 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Apple would like to have a word with you. 

--SNIP--

I should clarify that I didn't mean out of support when I said obsolete - I meant that technology is like a paper map. As soon as a map is printed, it's out of date as there are newly discovered areas that can be added. It's the same with technology, except that in some cases (Apple, Intel, nVidia, etc.) they already know what's planned for release in the next 6-18 months, so even if R&D stalls a bit, they can still release a "new" product to the general public to keep profits coming in. It's a very smart business move, but also kind of deceiving to consumers who don't know any better.

[Mira Yurizaki]

So aside from some ray tracing thing being in an API, what makes it different than this?

Or this?

 

[leadeater]

19 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

So aside from some ray tracing thing being in an API, what makes it different than this?

Marketing with a side order of hardware getting faster over time so can do more impressive tech demos to deliver said marketing.

[Zodiark1593]

One of my old renders, but the floor reflecting it's own color upon the walls and other objects is an example of Global Illumination.