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High-dynamic-range rendering

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High-dynamic-range rendering

High-dynamic-range rendering (HDRR or HDR rendering), also known as high-dynamic-range lighting, is the rendering of computer graphics scenes by using lighting calculations done in high dynamic range (HDR). This allows preservation of details that may be lost due to limiting contrast ratios. Video games and computer-generated imagery movies and visual effects benefit from this as it creates more realistic scenes than with more simplistic lighting models. HDRR was originally required to tone map the rendered image onto Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) displays, as the first HDR capable displays did not arrive until the 2010s. However, if a modern HDR display is available, it is possible to instead display the HDRR with even greater contrast and realism.

Graphics processor company Nvidia summarizes the motivation for HDRR in three points: bright things can be really bright, dark things can be really dark, and details can be seen in both.

The use of high-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI) in computer graphics was introduced by Greg Ward in 1985 with his open-source Radiance rendering and lighting simulation software which created the first file format to retain a high-dynamic-range image. HDRI languished for more than a decade, held back by limited computing power, storage, and capture methods. Not until recently[when?] has the technology to put HDRI into practical use been developed.

In 1990, Eihachiro Nakame and associates presented a lighting model for driving simulators that highlighted the need for high-dynamic-range processing in realistic simulations.

In 1995, Greg Spencer presented Physically-based glow visual effects for digital images at SIGGRAPH, providing a quantitative model for flare and blooming in the human eye.

In 1997, Paul Debevec presented Recovering high dynamic range radiance maps from photographs at SIGGRAPH, and the following year presented Rendering synthetic objects into real scenes. These two papers laid the framework for creating HDR light probes of a location, and then using this probe to light a rendered scene.

HDRI and HDRL (high-dynamic-range image-based lighting) have, ever since, been used in many situations in 3D scenes in which inserting a 3D object into a real environment requires the light probe data to provide realistic lighting solutions.

In gaming applications, Riven: The Sequel to Myst in 1997 used an HDRI postprocessing shader directly based on Spencer's paper. After E3 2003, Valve released a demo movie of their Source engine rendering a cityscape in a high dynamic range. The term was not commonly used again until E3 2004, where it gained much more attention when Epic Games showcased Unreal Engine 3 and Valve announced Half-Life 2: Lost Coast in 2005, coupled with open-source engines such as OGRE 3D and open-source games like Nexuiz.

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