Rockstar lead graphics programmer and notable visualization community figure Wolfgang Engel recently updated his Diary Of A Graphics Programmer blog, a must-read for anyone interested in visual computing, with an idea for a new rendering design.

Describing the design as a Light Pre-Pass Renderer, Engel explained: "The idea is to fill up a Z-buffer first and also store normals in a render target. This is like a G-buffer with normals and Z values. So compared to a deferred renderer, there is no diffuse color, specular color, material index, or position data stored in this stage. Next the light buffer is filled up with light properties. So the idea is to differ between light and material properties."

As the Light Pre-Pass Renderer is designed to be flexible and scalable, Engel expects programmers to produce different results based on the rendering design: "Obviously, my initial approach is only scratching the surface of the possibilities." More recently, he's revealed that he talked at the University Of California San Diego about the concept, and plans to publish more information on it in the near future.