What is the Hardware Assisted Render: Open GLSL and how does it work?
linvanchene
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It's an OpenGL (preview render) render with a few more features. Like a basic set of GLSL shaders. (GLSL...OpenGL Shading Language)
It has nothing to do with 3Delight. It's a separate renderer. It uses the geometry, basic materials and different set of shaders for the render.
It does have the potential to do a lot, as it's the same type of rendering that's used in a lot of game engines...except it doesn't have the shaders to make the most use of it...and the shaders are NOT easily changed (at least in the DS interface). It's still limited to the OpenGL maximum number of lights, which is one reason it isn't used more often...
It does have one advantage...it gets a GPU boost, just like any OpenGL item would.
I imagine if there was an easier way of doing shaders for it, that it would be used more. It is useful if you are making game content, but that's about all, for now.
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For a number of things, there will be little difference...but when you start getting more advanced materials/shaders the GLSL render starts to get more and more different. Things like translucency, SSS and so on just aren't 'there'...more than 8 lights?...they won't show up/do anything...reflections/refraction...much different. Even the shadows are different (no 'softness' in the GLSL...or at least not the same kind of softness).
There's a set of GLSL shaders that were compiled for Blender that I'd love to get into DS...they got a number of advanced features...AO, indirect diffuse w/ color bleeding and so on. Things that just aren't there in the set included in DS.
It's not that GLSL can't handle that stuff, it's just that the shader set included in DS is rather basic. But the limit on the number of lights is a hard limit, so there's no changing that. And the big thing...it's not easy (as in I have no clue where to even begin) to change/add to the set of shaders included in DS.