A shading language on graphics hardware

Abstract
Over the years, there have been two main branches of computer graphics image-synthesis research; one focused on interactivity, the other on image quality. Procedural shading is a powerful tool, commonly used for creating high-quality images and p roduction animation. A key aspect of most procedural shading is the use of a shading language, which allows a high-level description of the color and shading o f each surface. However, shading languages have been b eyond the capabilities of the interactive graphics hardware community. We have created a parallel graphics multi- computer, PixelFlow, that can render images at 30 frames per second u sing a shading language. This is the first system to be able to support a shading language in real-time. In this paper, we describe some of the techniques that make this poss ible.