New Breakthroughs in light and shadow computing

Geomerics, a Cambridge-based graphics technology company, has recently made some breakthroughs in the field of light and shadow computing. game developers can use this achievement to make their work more colorful.

Geomerics replaces the widely used Spherical Harmonic Functions by combining geometric algebra with wavelet technology, and achieves the same environmental light data compression efficiency. This technology allows users to change the lighting environment, object location, and viewing angle in real time, not only can they process flooding and gradient shadows (Soft Shadows ), in addition, it can achieve a real-world dynamic mirror effect within the same pipeline, which is not achieved by sphere harmonic functions that are widely used in the industry.

Geomerics's Chief Technical Director, Jules Davis, said: "We are very pleased to have taken a big step forward in this field.AlgorithmExtremely efficient, very suitable for the existing GPU Technology, can greatly improve the texture of the game screen ." Geomerics plans to demonstrate this technology at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) held in March 22-24.

Light and Shadow computing is a key factor in the future game development field. Currently, the mature computing method is to use Spherical Harmonic Functions for PRT computing (precomputed Radiance Transfer), but its limitations are as follows: the relative positions of objects with light interaction must remain unchanged, and it is difficult to cope with high dynamic light environments (HDR.

The following demo shows the gradient shadow and the Light and Shadow Based on the highlight Effect in the eyes and beam of a person:

The computer graphics technology in the gaming field will take a big step forward with the help of the technical achievements of geomerics, making great strides in terms of speed, efficiency and ease of programming.