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Proposal: Computer Graphics GPGPU programming include different technologies with the objective of increasing speed of normal CPU computation. While they involve graphic cards, they are rarely computer graphics realted.

So, does questions telling about code problems in Schonhage-Strassen with OpenCL would be welcome?

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    Not against it, but it could possibly be a slippery slope to things like cryptocoin mining
    – rw-nandemo
    Jun 25, 2014 at 17:31
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    @rwollr : it is the typical kind of questions I am thinking (as long as they are code and also maths related).
    – user2284570
    Jun 25, 2014 at 19:41
  • @user2284570 there is already a stackexchange devoted to cryptocoin mining bitcoin.stackexchange.com
    – David Wilkins
    Jun 27, 2014 at 19:38
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    @DavidWilkins : I was thinking to cryptocurrency as a typical example of general purpose computing which use GPUs. There are many others things (like cryptography acceleration) which don't have a dedicated site. At least, I am wondering if pure general mathematical questions would be welcome (as long as they involve GPU programming).
    – user2284570
    Jun 27, 2014 at 20:24
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    I second @rwollr. It would be great if all graphics acceleration questions be accepted in this site. CG related or not. But I have a feeling that cryptocurrency questions might get a little bit vague after a while.
    – Daniel Node.js
    Jul 15, 2014 at 20:43

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I think these types of questions should definitely be allowed here. When I created this site, I wanted it to have a really big scope... including just about anything about graphics cards. This would make it a great place for even non-tech people to find great answers to questions about GPUs. GPGPU programming is also pretty different to standard CPU programming and very similar to shader programming.

GPGPU actually is very graphics related. Raytracing, computational geometry, and visualization are just a few examples. FFT algorithms are used a lot in image processing.

Before Robert Cartaino edited my proposal, you could see what kind of scope I intended for it.

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    Yes, but the scope of this question aim at discussing the scope about specific implementations, where the final aim is absolutely not Graphic related (ex: cryptographic question about code in OpenCL). Just look at the comment I posted to David Wilkins.
    – user2284570
    Jul 14, 2014 at 22:08
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    @user2284570 I think that just about all GPGPU acceleration questions should be accepted. Even cryptocurrency algorythms... as long as their not vague, of course.
    – Daniel Node.js
    Jul 15, 2014 at 20:36
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What about: questions on GPU computing are ok as long as it serves a graphic purpose?

For example particles, clothes, physics or fluid dynamics would be fine, but not crunching numbers, synthesizing instruments' sounds or doing things that don't end up in a scene in general.

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    Yes - I think we can draw a useful distinction between "GPGPU" techniques for rendering, simulation etc. and things that have nothing to do with graphics, like protein folding or machine learning.
    – Nathan Reed
    Jun 28, 2015 at 0:51
  • Sound might be important, as games and 3D workspaces quite often have three-dimensional sound emitter arrays that need to be calculated.
    – J Sargent
    Aug 4, 2015 at 19:13
  • Sound is a wide and difficult field on its own; I am not sure it would be sound to casually have sound related questions in a graphics community.
    – Julien Guertault
    Aug 5, 2015 at 2:59
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GPGPU essentially consists of core graphics API's used to implement general purpose computation, so i guess there shouldn't be a problem, but there are a few more things to note:

1.GPGPU is rather loosing popularity after the introduction of dedicated GPU computation API's such as CUDA and OPENCL.

2.OPENCL discussions will be more towards High Performance Computing and will have negligible graphics related queries hence seem unfit to be discussed in this site.

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    I thinks those kind of question should be excluded so I'm accepting this answer as the site is in beta. So questions about GPGPU are welcome as long as they are Computer Graphics related (they involve video output). @DantheMan Feel free to start a dedicated proposal.
    – user2284570
    Jul 17, 2014 at 0:01
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    I'm not sure I get this answer. CUDA and OCL are meant for GPGPU computaton, they are not mutually exclusive. And Why would OCL not be related to discussions here? Maya, Houdini, Nuke... they all use OCL, and if you want to write a deform node in Maya that is compatible with GPU accel You will need to know some OCL.
    – ThE_JacO
    Jul 14, 2015 at 21:47
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100% in favor of having GPGPU programming going on this website. I'm not sure where the idea that GPGPU isn't related to CG comes from, but it's factually inaccurate. It's not a drawing centric approach to computation, which is what OGL and DX tend to be, but aside from that it's employed to great and growing extent in CG and shouldn't be ignored.

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  • Does this mean you want to see graphics related GPGPU questions, but not questions about using GPGPU for purposes unrelated to graphics?
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Jul 16, 2015 at 12:36
  • (I'd be happy to see general GPU questions as I suspect they will still be relevant to those working with computer graphics, and bring in experts that will be needed for other, more graphics related questions.)
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Jul 16, 2015 at 12:37
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    Personally I'd be happy to see mostly anything GPGPU related, I've been a proponent and a developer for it for long enough. More objectively speaking though there probably is a point where, if the question is purely and solely related to GPGPU abstracts of sorts and it's not going to loop back into CG applications, then it belongs to SO. It's a fuzzy edge though, ultimately I think the community and the meta moderation will find the boundaries of the topic.
    – ThE_JacO
    Jul 16, 2015 at 22:59
  • Wherever the line happens to fall I'll be very happy to see this site succeed.
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Jul 16, 2015 at 23:12

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