The most important hardware feature/tech so far

"Developers! Developers! Developers!"

More seriously... can I vote for proper shadow support, especially so in the context of Perspective Shadow Maps? If "programmability" can be taken as a whole, sure it beats everything else, but it's too general and "obvious" (that is, there were nice SGI implementations in the 90s etc.) for it to really qualify here imo.
Of course, given proper performance characteristics of the given scenes, Carmack's Reverse would be given a tie with PSMs here, I assume (although I'm not a big stenci fan - heck, even Carmack isn't one anymore nowadays!)

Better models to easily get the quality of photon-mapping like lighting with partial preprocessing for partially dynamic scenes, being seen in real games, would be next big step here imo. There are some nice ideas out there for "mostly outdoor" scenes with a single moving directional lightsource (i.e. the sun), but even that doesn't feel as good as it could imo.
Apparently UT2007 will be bringing some nice innovations (read: polish) in the area of light preprocessing, so I'm looking forward to that.


Uttar
EDIT: And before anyone says no, yes this is hardware-related as there have been various enhancements in hardware to improve flexibility, performance and/or flexibility of these techniques.

 

Nothing is really "new" in the end if you look at other markets. The trick is how to get advanced features that gigantic clusters at 3D studios f.e use into the mainstream PC.

Get me Pixar's stochastic SSAA and motion blur into a mainstream PC tomorrow at playable framerates and I'll gladly call it a "revolution" or "innovation".

 

since the introduction of hardware t&l I would say the inclusion of multi-display (dual-head, hydravision, twinview or whatever you want to call it).

Thats something that everybody can enjoy, even if they dont play games.

 

The R100 had really fast, but really bad AF so that is not something new.

Anyway the most important new feature since TnL is programmability (both in relation to vertexes and pixels) instead of fixed funtion.

 

The four-speed dual-quad positraction four-oh-nine. (Bonus points for knowing this without looking it up.)

I'd say the 256-bit bus. How would performance be today if we didn't have a big, fat pipe sitting between the memory and gpu?

 

Aggressive [and reliable] Z tricks.

 

matrox headcasting technology

 

FPS16 blending and filtering.

 

Doh...can't edit =/
I meant FP16, but I guess my mind is somehow still stuck in Quake4

 

Programmability. And if that's too general, I'd say the step to PS2.0 shaders were probably one of the most important leaps forwards.

 

4 speed limited slip what?
dual quad?

 

Hlsl

High level programming languages has been the real engine of modern graphics. Of course thsy implies the hardware able to run complex programs (SM2 and 3) at speed but also the ability to quickly test algorithms in a C like language.

 

My vote too.

 

Programmable shader units and SLI.
________
Cannabis Collective

 

I very much disagree with SLI.. since that was available with the Voodoo 2 (pre-DX7).. Perhaps some of the advanced AA/aniso features (SuperAA) would be something to consider.. but definately not SLI by itself.

 

Deathlike2: SLI-AA is nothing new, 3Dfx supported it also (VSA-100/Voodoo 5). 3Dfx used even programmable sample patterns.

 

Well, I already know about 3dfx's SLI-AA, but what I meant was an expansion on the SLI rendering modes (SuperTiling specifically)...

I don't recall 3dfx having programming sample patterns... link?

 

Some unofficial drivers had even the possibility to adjust the sample grid. VSA-100 also supports stochastic AA and temporal AA - you can try it on your own: here is TAA glide with experimental StAA support. It's not link to any statement, but this features wouldn't be possible with hard-wired AA grid .

 

I'd say programability/shaders.... my buddy was feeln the pain wrt his Voodoo5, until I sold him my 9500np/9700. He of course poo pooed games w/shaders until he could actually play them!

OT:
4speed- Hurst stick
dual-quad- cast iron or alu. manifold /w dual Holley 4barrel carbs (rochester?)
Positraction- no-slip differential
four oh nine- four hundred + nine cubic inches of big-block fury!!!

thanx i feel older now!!

 

I wrote a small program that would let you manually set the Sample Patterns on 3dfx cards: http://www.users.on.net/~triforce/glidexp/fsaaselector.zip