Conclusion
An increase in the performance of desktop
computers, at much reduced prices, has created a
demand for desktop computers. Consumers of PCs
are bewitched by images of stunning, computer
generated 3D graphics through the popular
entertainment mediums and are expecting similar
experiences on their own machines. A plethora of
innovative new 3D graphics subsystems will enable
average computer users to see real time, real
world 3D graphics on their desktop machines.
These new accelerators off load the
computationally intensive tasks of 3D graphics
from the host CPU, and provide functions in
hardware that can be used to generate effects
that add realism to computer generated images. |
While initially the
demand for 3D graphics will be in entertainment
and multimedia applications, business
applications will benefit directly too.
Professional applications such as CAD, and
multimedia authoring also demand real time 3D
performance. The base performance level for 3D
graphics on the desktop is being driven up, and
the result is that many workstation applications
are successfully migrating to the PC platform. 3D
is uniting creation and playback on the same
platform. 3D graphics puts more information on
the screen than 2D, and will change the way
people interact with computers. Real time 3D is
an essential element of the information age, and
will make navigating the Web a much easier task
then it is today.
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