Order independent transparency uses multiple rendering passes to peel away the depth layers of an image starting from the front to back.

In Conclusion

Nvidia also had a presentation on motion blur and depth of field (one on audio which I won't cover for lack of time, space, desire), and did a more convincing job of selling these features then 3dfx did when it started to demo them in the days of Voodoo 5ks, but again, a lot of work to incorporate them into existing game dynamics.

I mean, it used to be easy when the graphics industry was convincing game developers to move from 2D to 3D. The only problem was a lack of hardware. Now, the industry is trying to convince them that they can be more accurate, more realistic, and at the same time, the game industry is under to pressure to do physics better, AI better, evolve game play, add networking features, and so on. Where's the payoff in more realistic 3D if the 3D effects you get otherwise are good enough?

Somewhere out there is a breakthrough game or application that can do it all - great, realistic 3D graphics, and full throttle gaming. I don't think anyone knows what that product is right now, and surely, surely, it can't be yet another Quake engine.