Lately, someone at work has pointed out the approximation of translucency Marc Bouchard and I developed back at EA [1], which ended up in DICE’s Frostbite engine [2] (aka The Battlefield 3 Engine). Wanting to know more, we started browsing the slides one by one and revisiting the technique. Looking at the HLSL, an optimization came to my mind, which I’ll end up discussing in this post. In case you missed the technique, here’s a few cool screenshots made by Marc, as well as tips & tricks regarding implementing the technique and generating the inverted ambient-occlusion/thickness map. See the references for additional links.
Category: Frostbite 2
Approximating Translucency – Part II (addendum to GDC 2011 talk / GPU Pro 2 article)
Thanks to everyone who attended my GDC talk! Was quite happy to see all those faces I hadn’t seen in a while, as well as meet those whom I only had contact with via Twitter, IM or e-mail.
For those who contacted me post-GDC, it seems the content I submitted for GPU Pro 2 didn’t make it into the final samples archive. I must’ve submitted too late, or it didn’t make it to the editor. Either way, the code in the paper is the most up-to-date, so you should definitely check-it out (and/or simply buy the book)!
Roger Cordes sent the following questions. I want to share the answers, since it covers most of the questions people had after the talk:
GDC 2011 – Approximating Translucency for a Fast, Cheap and Convincing Subsurface Scattering Look
As presented at GDC 2011, here’s my (and the legendary Marc Bouchard) talk on our real-time approximation of translucency, featured in the Frostbite 2 engine (used for DICE’s Battlefield 3). These are the slides that we presented, along with audio. Enjoy! 🙂
Marc and I would like to thank the following people for their time, reviews and constant support:
For those we managed to meet, we had such a good time with all of you at GDC. Always happy to interact with passionate game developers – this is what makes our industry so great! We hope to see you soon again! 🙂
GDC 2011 – Approximating Translucency for a Fast, Cheap and Convincing Subsurface Scattering Look
This year, I’ll be presenting at GDC (Game Developers Conference), along other great speakers from EA (especially DICE).
The talk is about a very cheap and fast approximation of translucency that will allow developers to add convincing subsurface scattering to their scenes with minimal impact on performance. The technique is excellent in a wide variety of scenes, using anything from minimal to massive numbers of lights. Here’s a quick summary of my talk, which you can also find on the GDC website.
[Title]
Approximating translucency for a Fast, Cheap, and convincing Subsurface Scattering Look
[Description]
In real-time computer graphics, the interaction of light and matter is often reduced to local reflection described by Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions (BRDFs). While this mathematical model is valid for describing surface reflectance of opaque objects, many objects in nature are partly translucent: light travels within the surface. To simulate translucent properties of objects in real-time, such as subsurface scattering (in human skin and other surfaces), developers rely on complex and expensive techniques. Conversely, this talk presents a fast and scalable approximation of translucency for a convincing subsurface scattering look which can be implemented on current and next generation video gaming systems.
[Takeaway]
Developers attending this session will be able to improve their game’s visuals by adding real-time translucency to their scenes with minimal impact on the run-time, as demonstrated using EA DICE’s Frostbite engine. Moreover, this effect, once limited to offline rendering, will undeniably help developers in creating a more complete and immersive gaming experience.
[Intended Audience]
Reaching stakeholders from several disciplines of video game development, this talk is intended for all individuals that share common goals in terms of real-time graphics and that strive towards improving the visual quality of tomorrow’s games: rendering programmers, technical artists, art directors and technical art directors.
Visit this website for more info on other great talks to be presented.
See you at GDC!
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