[GPU] Vertex shader
I think the future of the CGI is to increase its flexibility to create heavier and more complex things faster. To do this go through the GPU and some optimization technologies designed primarily for video games can bring a great deal of flexibility to the CGI.
Vertex shaders can be usefull to replace or to add in options for examples with modifiers, to not have to call CPU power for everything.
twitter.com/IRCSS/status/1207084422501142528 gameacademy.school/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/animatedGrass.gif ronja-tutorials.com/assets/images/posts/015/Result.gif
3 Comments
This is far too vague a proposal, and also isn't nearly as easy to implement as simply swapping the code from the CPU to the GPU. You mention modifiers, but you have links to shaders that deform objects (which is already possible in Cycles).
I would love to see vertex displacement in EEVEE, too. But I don't think that's what you're proposing.
* @Josephbburg * Well, you can use OSL to use vertex displacement in cycles, but i think replacing some modifiers like for example the wave modifier to not only work on cpu, but on gpu, and next do that for others modifiers too like latice, and others. I don't know how hard it is to implement that, but i think it can increace workflow speed really mutch since nowadays many people have gpu, and workstation use gpu.
* @yoann softyoda * It's available in Cycles from the material output, you don't have to use OSL. Remember, back in 2.79 when OpenSubdiv had GPU compute? It was actually slower unless it was the last modifier in the stack. So I don't think what you're suggesting is possible.