GPU accelerated browsing

zamicro said:
Why a different api if 2d is just a special case of 3d? The only reason I can think of might be processing speed.
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Direct2D is Microsoft's new graphics library. It's replacing GDI+ which is currently what everyone uses. It leverages the GPU, which has loads of benefits...
 
oh this is awesome. I think it's becoming the era where the gpu>cpu.
 
cerebus said:
oh this is awesome. I think it's becoming the era where the gpu>cpu.
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Depends, if your operating system and apps werent killing your CPU with needless processing it would be more than enough to browse without shifting work to the GPU.

I dont like it. If you're making your GPU an entry point for processing anything but video you're making it an entry point for processing things it shouldnt be. I foresee the exploits flowing freely out of this one....
 
The cpu still does a lot of calculation for bitmap operations. For a lot of scenarios, the gpu simply draws what the OS tells it to pixel for pixel. The idea is to shift some of that processing onto the gpu, which can do it far more effectively. I tried that firefox demo, and there is a MASSIVE difference.
 
What's the point of IE getting GPU acceleration when it's still the snail in the stable? First fix the inherent slooowness of IE, then the GPU bit makes sense.
 
dequadin said:
Direct2D is Microsoft's new graphics library. It's replacing GDI+ which is currently what everyone uses. It leverages the GPU, which has loads of benefits...
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But I still do not see the benefit of having a separate (from Direct3D) api. Or is it just to make it easier for developers to learn, as a lot of the 3d functions will be useless in 2D?
 
zamicro said:
But I still do not see the benefit of having a separate (from Direct3D) api. Or is it just to make it easier for developers to learn, as a lot of the 3d functions will be useless in 2D?
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3D is like 200x more complicated.:o You'll also get worse performance all other things being equal. Just figuring out which objects are visible and which are hidden is already a major mission w/ lots of math.

With IE9 and hardware acceleration turned on, they achieved 60 FPS.
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eh, thats still pretty pathetic. Bling maps isn't exactly crysis style eye candy.

rurapente said:
Hold on a sec here, im confuzzled. Dont GPU's already do all the 2d rendering?
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Confused me too. Here is the best answer I could find:
On Windows XP, GDI and Direct3D had equal standing as far as the operating system was concerned. The user-mode portions of GDI and Direct3D interfaced directly with their kernel-mode counterparts. As a result, both could be directly hardware accelerated, given suitable display drivers. With Windows Vista, Microsoft delegated the responsibility of controlling video hardware exclusively to Direct3D. GDI suddenly became the legacy graphics API that was supported predominantly through software-based rendering on top of Direct3D.
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Mybb article could have put a bit more emphasis on this imo:
Direct2D is a new 2D and vector graphics application programming interface (API)
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