No discussion on rendering would be complete without talking about vertex
shaders. The concept of shaders is nothing new to the graphics industry, Pixar
has used it for years in their phenomenal films such as Toy Story and The
Incredibles. However till now, vertex shading effects were so computationally
complex that they could only be processed offline using server farms. With the
current generation of semiconductor technology, developers can program realtime
Vertex Shaders to breathe life and personality into characters and
environments, such as fog that dips into a valley and curls over a hill; or true-tolife
facial animation such as dimples or wrinkles that appear when a character
smiles