If all of the instructions in the ARB assembly language are all I need to suit my needs, then would there really be that much of a difference in execution speed and/or compatibility? Here is an ARB instruction reference: http://www.rendergui...om/gpuguide.pdf . Would I be able to write the tracer without using a high level shading language like GLSL? I would like to use ARB assembly and avoid using GLSL, but if it is absolutely necessary, I definitely won't sacrifice performance. I just was wondering why ARB isn't preferable.

If all of the instructions in the ARB assembly language are all I need to suit my needs, then would there really be that much of a difference in execution speed and/or compatibility? Here is an ARB instruction reference: http://www.renderguild.com/gpuguide.pdf . Would I be able to write the tracer without using a high level shading language like GLSL? I would like to use ARB assembly and avoid using GLSL, but if it is absolutely necessary, I definitely won't sacrifice performance. I just wanted to know why ARB is so bad.