So when can we expect THIS for SL??

* Real Time Lighting and Dynamic Soft Shadows:
natural looking light sources, and creates soft shadows that dynamically respond to natural movements. It includes high-resolution, perspective correct and volumetric smooth-shadow implementations.

* Volumetric, Layer and View Distance Fogging:
Create clouds or fog banks which can hug the ground and realistically reduce both visibility and contrast, and properly interact with both dynamic lights and shadows, add depth and dimension to a landscape by reducing scene contrast and clarity for distant landmarks

* Terrain 2.5D Ambient Occlusion Maps:
On a per pixel level, approximates the amount of ambient (fill) light reaching an object (static or dynamic) depending on the amount of ambient occlusion created by the surrounding foliage and structures.

* Normal Maps and Parallax Occlusion Maps:
Normal maps are used to project the contour details of a highly detailed object onto a low polygon model by using a high frequency compressed (3DC/BC5) texture in place of the polygon’s surface normal in lighting calculations. Support of parallax occlusion mapping to give a greater sense of depth to a surface texture applied to a polygon, such as could be used to realistically emphasize the relief surface structure of a brick wall, for example.

* Real Time Ambient Maps:
Pre-calculate the amount of ambient (fill) light which will be applied to indoor surfaces, to improve the quality of lighting when applying real-time per-pixel lighting and shadows. This means the current light position and color can be dynamically added to the fill light intensity applied to illuminate surfaces in interior spaces.

* Subsurface Scattering:
Simulates the diffusion and diffraction of light transmitted through translucent objects, like ice and jade; it can also be used to create natural looking skin or vegetation.

* Eye Adaptation & High Dynamic Range (HDR) Lighting:
Eye Adaptation is used to simulate the human eye’s adaptation to sudden or extreme changes in lighting conditions, like dark indoor environments suddenly transitioning to bright sunny outdoor environments, while HDR allows scenes with extreme brightness and contrast ranges to be more realistically rendered.

* Motion Blur & Depth of Field:
Motion Blur is used to simulate the visual effect of using a slow shutter speed when tracking fast moving objects or making quick camera movements. Blur can be applied both to individual objects (object based motion blur), and/or to an entire scene (screen based motion blur), while Depth of Field can be used to focus the viewer’s eye on a nearby object while subtly blurring objects in front or behind the point of focus.

* Light Beams & Shafts:
These are used to create visually stunning light beams and shadows when light intersects with solid or highly detailed geometry, and can generate “godray” effects under water.

* High Quality 3D Ocean Technology:
Dynamically modifies the ocean surface based on wind and wave direction, generating shoreline soft-clipping breakers automatically where the ocean meets the shore, depending on the shoreline contour and ocean depth, while our caustic simulation creates realistic looking moving shadows and highlights in underwater environments.

* Advanced Shader Technology:
A script system used to combine textures and math in different ways to create unique effects such as cloaked, wet, muddy, and/or frozen surfaces which can be layered together and combined with more basic shaders such as metallic and glassy and other visual effects. Supports real time per-pixel lighting, bumpy reflections, refractions, volumetric glow effects, animated textures, transparent computer displays, windows, bullet holes, and shinny surfaces. Included are many unique new shaders which take advantage of the efficiencies of the unified shader architecture of DirectX 10.

* Terrain LOD Management Feature:
This feature allows optimal usage of CPU and memory to display closer objects and terrain at a fine level of detail while enabling long view distances of over 8 kilometers.

uhh...windlight?

When you submit your CV to Linden and show them how it's done

***edit*** For the benefit of many who take me seriously, this was a joke.

I'll try a different one.

Tod, when you stop fapping and go make it happen

When the average SL user has a PC that's even vaguely able to actually manage all of that, even with Cry Engine?

And then, when there can be a user-friendly way of making content for it, and you can't get people complaining about how someone bought a 16sqm parcel next to them and put huge shafts of sunlight on it that blind them every time they look the wrong way inside their house?

LOL! True!

But we'd have pretty ban lines

These capabilities won't be feasible in SL until your PC at home can access SL's servers in the same amount of time it takes your CPU to access your local hard drive. Even Internet 2.0 won't be fast enough, which we're not going to have access to anyway (it's only for military, government, and university users). Internet 3.0 -- if it ever arrives for the masses -- might give us the bandwidth and throughput necessary for real-time rendering.

Why would you need massive bandwidth for that? Just tack another little bit of data to each prim. SL isn't sending every single triangle that needs rendering, let the client handle it.

/me wants SL shinies! (Less crashy laggy badness first though, thanks)

You make a good point, Katherine, but all of the rezzing that's constantly going on around you -- AVs popping in close to you with an inventory that's miles and miles long, for example -- the bandwidth and SL server response just can keep up. Lag occurs. That will kill anything that resembles real time graphics rendering. The few extra bytes needed for rendering have to wait for their turn, too, along with all the other stuff that's coming down the pipe to your client. Until larger amounts of data can show up as quickly as you're wanting to fly around a sim, you will have rendering problems.

Tod69...

You can expect that kind of technology in a VRML world when we have Pentium 5's, Geforce 12,000's, and standard 4 gigs of ram.

The engine your describing is on par with Source (Halflife 2), Unreal 3 Engine (UT), and Crytek Engine (Crisis).

These game designers work extraordinarily hard to optimize a scene so that your 'viewable area' is always on par with what the hardware and engine can handle. Every step of the design takes these into consideration.

When you have an open-ended world, fully designed by it's citizens...things would slow to a crawl in no time. Everyone would be creating tons of detail and lighting and texturing and particles...all at HD resolutions...and the next thing you know, even the most powerful of supercomputers would come to a stand-still.

VRML worlds are constantly streaming--the assets are located on servers. And all this information has to travel the 'pipes' from one place to the next--even with clever coding and algorithms, the high quality engine you're talking about would clog the pipes.

Our current computers can handle some amazing things (Crisis, Bioshock), but once you leave the design and layout to someone who is uninformed, your computer will come to a halt.

We are a good 5-10 years away from VRML worlds looking like Bioshock and Crisis...

But hey...I'm a huge tech geek, and am at least excited that we can play games that utilize all the features you suggested.

But, I'm sure you already knew all that.

And by the time the technology has caught up with the videogame industry it will have moved on too ...

I dont think this type of stuff is far off... OpenGL is the limitation right now.

Entropia is getting the new cryengine so that is big news.

Other really nice looking 3d dev slash virtual world type platforms worth checking out:

dxstudio - www.dxstudio.com

Shiva/ston3d - http://www.stonetrip.com/

-w

If I were LL, I would be trying to accomplish two partly contradictory goals.

I would want to offer all the bleeding edge stuff to the early adopters with supercomputers on their desktops on the one hand...

...and I would want to offer a "good enough" SL experience to stay with it on the other for those who have automated abacuses powered by cages full of hamsters on meth.

*rolls eyes*

OpenGL isn't limiting anything, it's just a language for talking to the videocard. Limitations all come down to hardware.

Correct!

It's all in how it's coded. I have a feeling the code behind SL is such a clutter.

Lets get what we have got working first!

Silly, thats not how LL works! You gotta take a dozen ideas, have 3 people working on them, trying to get them to work, allow for residents to download/install/bitch about the new additions, THEN wait 4-6 months before saying "We're working on it" and a year later show some results.

Ok...well I should have said openGL (2.0) which is fairly old. The OP wanted features that are currently available with dx10.

I am not at all against openGL in fact I have seen openGL 2.1 and 3.0 demos that look better IMO than direct3d.

Like just about any current video game, I'm sure there would be options to turn off the various features. I you look at the OP's hardware specs he would have no problems using some of the features he is talkign about.

-w

Show me!! Show Me!! I wanna see!!!!


*Note: I'm on XP, not Vista, so no DX10 for me
But it still Rawks!! From what I've gathered from various 3D developer sites, DX9C hasn't even had it full potential utilized.

I haven't actually seen OpenGl3.0 yet , just read about the specs

here:
http://www.khronos.org/library/detail/siggraph_2007_opengl_birds_of_a_feather_bof_presentation/

some screenshots comparisons, take what you will:

http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13647

This demo I believe is openGL2.1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A838dclFr5U

-w

Wow, I'm impressed with OpenGL--now, I wonder, with this new version of OpenGL...

WILL IT FIX ALPHA SORTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How well is OPenGl keeping pace with Direct X

They are both 'on the level', however for professional game makers, DirectX is the only way to fly (at least for now).

DirectX doesn't have alpha-sorting issues for one thing.

I don't know the specific comparison, but DX is more optimized with the majority of game engines and graphical applications. In the end, when all bells and whistles are tweaked...DX looks better.

I know the recent demos of OpenGL 2.0 may show otherwise...but you don't see games like Bioshock, Crysis, UT3, and HL2 using OpenGL...they all use DX.

[edit: however, for streaming content, OpenGL is the only way to go in that respect]

of interest possibly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL#OpenGL_Games



-w

Hmmm...strange. I see Doom 3 and Quake series on there...I don't think these games are only OpenGl--I think they have the OPTION to change from OpenGL to DirectX in the graphic settings...a lot of games used to have that option. And the majority of hardcore gamers veered towards DX...because it was superior (at least in my circle of gamers).

But, still...DX10 is the superior choice for bleeding-edge games...without a doubt. OpenGL is more for streaming content.

I actually agree with this.

Microsoft did 1 thing right: DirectX, or more specifically, Direct3D. NOW the only thing I wished they did was make it cross-platform.

Even as a map builder, it is SO much easier with DirectX. With some editors & 3D Modeling programs its just a matter of drag N drop.