SM3 Renderer

Ok, I have my new GeForce 6800 GT, the latest beta of the DirectX 9.0c SDK, the latest beta of nVidia’s drivers (SM3 enabled). Let’s start!

I read many papers, watched some samples, I’m getting back in the 3D programming slowly as I spent the past month working on 3D Editor and game logic.

Few words come to my mind: Perspective Shadow Mapping, Parallax Mapping, Ambient Occlusion, HDR, and Deferred Shading.

The most critical part of the brainstorming was: should I go for the Deferred Shading?

I mean the whole technique is really appealing:
• It’s suited for hardware like the R300 and NV40 (good precision, Multiple Rendering Targets).
• Come on, true per-pixel lighting!
• Distinct stages for the rending process: albedo computation/MRT setup, lighting, post process (HDR, Blur, Fog, Glow …), which means high plugability!
• Perspective Shadow Mapping should work nicely with.
• It should only get better and faster on next hardware.

But:
• Hum…transparency? How? Where?
• Antialising…not so much, but we can walk round this.
• Can’t use complex Materials such as the ones for SH lighting.
• High pixel power is needed, can this technique run a great game scene at a suitable framerate on a X800 or 6800 GT?

Ok, let’s do it, the technique itself is so attractive to me, I have to try it out!