As SIGGRAPH 2010 winds down, one thing has been obvious: GPU rendering has matured quickly. GPU-based rendering initially got a bad name because public attention has been mostly on real-time ray-tracing implementations for games, where corners are cut to keep frame rates high. In real-time rendering schemes like those shown by Intel, light bounces were limited, they lacked color bleeding, and ambient occlusion (a key component of realistic rendering) was also AWOL. The end result looked like something from a raytracing white-paper from the early ’80s: flat, lifeless images that couldn’t compete even with games like Uncharted 2
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GPU renderers proliferate, show newfound maturity
