As some game developers look toward getting more photo-realism in their graphics, it seems one possible route is gaining some traction. Raytracing allows for some incredible effects (like shown above in this raytracing demo version of Quake IV) but at the cost of some serious CPU and GPU performance. Now an Intel rep has stated that real raytracing games, not just tech demos, are only a few years away.

In a chat with PC Games Hardware, Intel's Michael Vollmer states, "We keep in touch with companies all over the world - I dare say that in two to three years time we will see something." He added, however, that " . . . the migration to a new programming technology takes years; Raytracing is still in an early stage." So don't go crazy buying that 32 processor core PC with 16 GPUs inside just yet to run Quake 6.