ish718 wrote:The more general purpose GPUs become, graphics APIs will become less relevant, correct? O_O
Like being able to code directly to the GPU using C++. AMD is bringing c++ support with southern islands and Nvidia will bring improved c++ support with Kepler.
Err, the more general purpose GPUs become, the less "GPUs" will be relevant.
If they were fully general purpose, they'd just be CPUs. As codedivine says, GPUs still have plenty of constraints you have to write your code within. This can't really change, because those constraints are actually the
reason GPUs can do what they do faster than a CPU can.
What a lot of people, including you, seem to think is that a GPU is magically faster than a CPU, except for a few limitations that GPU-makers are gradually overcoming.
This is wrong. GPUs are not are magically faster, and those limitations aren't exceptions to that speed, they're
why GPUs have that speed.
ish718 wrote:APIs are holding back GPUs, that's why PC games running on GPUs that are like 10x more powerful than the GPUs in console don't look nearly 10x better than console games.
This assumes a linear relationship between processing power and the accuracy/verisimilitude of a simulation/representation. That's almost certainly not the case.
ish718 wrote:I know APIs bring lots of leverage to developers with compatibility across a wide range of platforms and optimizing for one hardware configuration is a no no in PC gaming right now.
It is? Why?
More than a few games have come out with features only usable by one GPU-maker or the other, so why would it be a no-no to try and optimize the code path for one architecture?
ish78 wrote:What if in the future where all GPUs fully support C++, this would allow a lot more low level access to the hardware for developers and they wouldn't have to worry too much about compatibility issues since all GPUs would support C++.
They'd only have to worry about the whole performance thing...
ish78 wrote:lol, I realize this will complicate PC game development( hell, learning DX11 ain't easy either) and probably skyrocket development cost but it would bring more sales. There are already tons of graphics libraries for C++. I can't wait until all GPUs fully support C++.
Well, there is no sense in waiting for what won't actually happen.