PS3 Real-time Ray-tracing

[Arri411]

(cont'd) LOTS of memory and/or extra memory slots. and just call that the PS4. They wouldn't have to add any media player, no wireless, no bluetooth, SD slots...none of that. Hell, if they would transition their tools to a customized version of OSX they could even probably add an inexpensive Intel multicore processor along side the Cells.

[Arri411]

I know the demo is old at this point, but I'm curious about whether one PS3s was actually acting as a controller for the rest and whether that was a major performance hit? Real-time ray tracing for full crowded scenes is fairly heavy lifting even for modern processing solution hardware, but it would be kind of nice if Sony could/would make an accessory appliance for the PS3 that had 3-4 Cell processor assemblies, some basic processor for task managing and a gigabit ethernet controller with RAM

[Mr220king]

3 PS3's can do real time ray tracing wow, but still the PS3 can't do more than 720p with very little AA.

I'd like to see them do real time ray tracing in game with more than 1 model and decent back grounds.

A bit pointless realy.

[Amyloves123]

this was cool.. back in 2007. But we now have affordable multicore processors for standard computers that can do more

[danix30001]

for rendering CGI movies is REALLY usefull

[MenkoDany]

How do you make clusters out of those ps3's?

[MrHamzaAsghar]

So does this mean, a single ps3 cant handle all this ???

[GuyFromNewark88]

i dont see anyone doing this type of stuff on the 360

[PhotoShopChannel]

@GuyFromNewark88 because it uses the traditional multi-core style processor instead of multi single cores processors (Cell Broadband Engine), this program is made for Linux/Ubuntu wich you don't get of the xbox. the Xbox architecture is better for games and the games developers which is why cross platform games look slightly better / run better on Xbox.

[TKGB2006]

I just saw a short CGI movie made in 1985 that didn't even look as close to this and in the credits, it said that it required 150 computers to do what you just did with 3 PS3's.

[plandercozeron]

awesome, 2007 year

[matthewdoucette]

awesome work

[Dataacid]

so this thing actually beats the optiX from nvidia? looks like that one makes better images, although it takes a lot of time for it to complete, interactive mode doesn't look as good as this one though with optiX, it feels less choppy though.

so my question is "do Cells render raytracing better than nvidia gpus?"

[multimediahelp1]

that's really cool!

[spongeprince123]

what if you used only one ps3 to render?

[Blobby1011]

@spongeprince123 It would be very slow xD

It's got a low enough frame rate as it is with 3 PS3s, let alone 1! Looks really nice, but i think realtime ray traced graphics in games may be a while away. :P

[EndFlux]

@Blobby1011 Not really, you can expect the first within a year :) From what i've heard Nvidia is working pretty hard on their hardware for raytracing..

[EndSocialism2012]

Too bad Sony did away with the OtherOS feature. I'm hoping that the class action lawsuits in place against them will benefit those of us that want the feature back. Unfortunately my girlfriend's kid updated my ps3 to play a game, so I lost that function.

[7arnebcab7]

raytracing + 3d must be awsome

[Madkillr05]

Who needs the RSX, it's not even very powerful, the cell is what does most of the heavy lifting anyway XJ

[MouthofSaurons]

When you say 4x Super Sampling, do you mean 2x2 which equals 4, or 4x4 supersampling?

[bobjoe212x]

Whats the advantages of this over Dynamic Cube Mapping... (besides Computing Power and Memory)

also... i thought access to the full PS3 Hardware in Linux was denied... or do you guys have some kind of thing w/ sony and a customized linux?

[parnold052003]

I have iRT running on single PS3 But would like to know how to configure iRT to run across multiple PS3 consoles. Can you enlighten me or point me to the the appropriate iRT Documentation on how to runt across mulitple PS3 consoles please?

[WhyteLis21]

this is amazin just look at uncharted 2

[WhyteLis21]

@kamego84 ur rite just look at uncharted 2

[oisiaa]

I love the visualization that shows what each core and PS3 is working on.

[cyborgtroy]

@LTF85199 - Probably not, Windows 7 is x86 and x86_64.

[jpviegas]

Hey that is really impressive stuff! Sorry the newb questions, but how many FPS are you running the application? And are you fully accessing the graphics card here?

[barryminor2]

@jpviegas Just using the dumb frame buffer available via Linux (no GPU assist). The frame rate was in the 10-15 fps range during these early days. You can down load the iRT via alphaWorks and measure it yourself.

[nooblet911]

what is the main advantage of ray-tracing over 'regular' rasterization that involves heavy tesselation and global illumination?

[cyborgtroy]

@nooblet911 - Ray-tracing can do more accurate reflection, refraction, and portal effects.

Faking reflection in rasterization is difficult and the results aren't usually great. You don't usually see multiple reflections and refractions in rasterized graphics, but in raytracing they're easy.

I'm not sure about subsurface scattering, but there's ways to fake that in rasterizing, too.

[KickHitlerInTheNuts]

awesome !

[hardkoregamer1981]

Barry are any of ibm's next generation processor architectures design choices going be similar to the cell processor's architectural design?

[hardkoregamer1981]

Thank you for taking time out of your job to respond to my message & keep up the excellent work you & everyone else dose at ibm thank you!

[barryminor2]

@hardkoregamer1981 np - thanks for posting

[oxman7]

@barryminor2 lol obviously you understand all about the ps3 etc. So what do you think comes out on top in games? cell or i7?

[hardkoregamer1981]

hey barry do you know what the reason was for sony down clocking the cell processor's clock speed inside playstation 3 because im carious to know the reason why?

[barryminor2]

The Cell in the PS3 runs at 3.2 GHz which is full speed for the part. In the lab however with "special" liquid cooling we have run them at over 6.0 GHz.

[charlegamer]

@barryminor2 >.> Would that give you an advantage online?

Assuming you could take an over-clocked ps3 online.

[riverjoe128]

@hardkoregamer1981 Clocks too high will burn the processor I understand. So it's not really downclocking it's just figuring a clock speed that suits the material and size of the processor, something like that.

As barry said, they used "special" liquid cooling, which allows higher speeds.

I thing there's also a problem with electromagnetic interference in the bus, so each "lane" (how do you call it?) of information starts making noise on the adjascent lanes.

Cheers!

[nooblet911]

gran turismo 7 (or 6 even, looking how slow 5 is getting along) will probably look pretty good

[nooblet911]

gran turismo 7 (or 6) will probably look pretty good

[HellToaster]

Can someone explain to me what is going on here? I saw a Lamborghini and just started drooling...

[rushnerd]

I really can't wait for DOOM5 (assuming it's made it would be made using id tech 6 which is ray tracing with raster graphics)

[Mechafizz024]

Yeah and rage

[CALLUMG33V3S]

Wait, how can something be ray traced AND have raster graphics. I was under the impression that they are distinctly two different things.

[I9kieran94]

i cant believe this comment was from 2 years ago. But the new GF100 from nvidea combined with the power of the core i7 CPU will allow raytracing to be used in games. It wont be that quick probably and not many developers will make content using raytracing but there will probably be a lot of demo's involving raytracing with high detail