Nvidia hosted their GeForce Special Event livestream today where the next generation of graphics cards was introduced. The new cards, powered by Nvidia’s “Ampere” technology, are the next step in bringing computer graphics as close to real-life as possible.
Using technologies pioneered in the RTX 20-series of graphics processors, the RTX 30-series are proving to be a generational leap forward in terms of ray tracing, dynamic lighting, and polygon counts. And in no demo is that more apparent than the new Marbles at Night tech demonstration.
Nvidia originally showed us a preview of Marbles back in May as a simple physics game where the player tilts the playing field to guide a marble down a crafter's paradise of paintbrushes, bottles of glue, and rulers. Marbles at Night takes that concept further by taking away the single light source and adding dozens of different sources at night, showing how each marble reflects those light sources differently depending on the construction and texture of each tiny orb.
As repeated several times in the video, everything is dynamic. All lighting effects are calculated in real-time with no rasterization. Every surface is rendered and reflects light just as it would in real life, with diffuse patterns and sharp shadows depending on the reflective material.
All in all, the whole thing looks utterly gorgeous. If this is how next-gen cards will render in-game graphics, then sign us up.
Source: Nvidia, Gamers Prey