Fortune Files

IBL

2011-04-19T17:44:00.000+02:00

implementation of IBL from http://www.inemeri.com/blog
http://timothylottes.blogspot.com/2011/04/inemeri-ibl-tube.html

nice, some popping artefacts occur when close camera shots of the head ... probably doing something wrong with depth .... but for geometry it looks really nice !!

Anti Aliasing

2011-04-07T11:45:00.001+02:00

I tried the FSAA from http://timothylottes.blogspot.com/ .. looks nice !

FSAA 1x

NoAA

FSAA 2x

Edge Detect smoothing of edges
and FSAA 2x

2010-10-25T23:30:00.002+02:00

Can't Compile Content Exporter with new FBXSDK 2011.3 ?

2010-10-18T13:21:00.001+02:00

due to changes in recent FBX sdk, change:
Line 170:
    //DOUBLE* pColorRGB = (DOUBLE*)pFbxLight->Color.Get();
    fbxsdk_2011_3::fbxDouble3 pColorRGB = pFbxLight->Color.Get();

so ParseMesh.cpp in ImportFBX line 182 should be:
     KFbxMesh::EMeshSmoothness Smoothness = pFbxMesh->GetMeshSmoothness();
    if( Smoothness != KFbxMesh::eHULL && g_pScene->Settings().bConvertMeshesToSubD )

Line 222, FBXImportMain.cpp:
    //KFbxIO::GetCurrentVersion( iMajorVersion, iMinorVersion, iRevision );
    g_pSDKManager->GetFileFormatVersion(iMajorVersion, iMinorVersion, iRevision );

Line 240, FBXImportMain.cpp:
    //g_pImporter->SetFileFormat( iFileFormat ); // GetFileFormatVersion
    BOOL bResult = g_pImporter->Initialize( strFileName, iFileFormat );

2010-09-09T10:25:00.000+02:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUPzdKDEnc

2010-08-30T14:31:00.000+02:00

just a thing or two

2010-08-30T00:00:00.001+02:00

HDR, Ghosting on Smudgy Glass Lens, Streak, Glare, Disc Depth of field, Heat & Haze, Tesselation, Bump Edge anti-aliasing, phonemes recognition. All running on ATI Radeon 5870 at 1920x1200 at 60Hz.

Naive Volumetric Rendering

2009-04-10T14:50:00.015+02:00

Below are screens from my deferred volumetric renderer, an attempt to render participating media or participating media renderer attempt.

It uses a simple approach for rendering volumetric fog as described in Boyd's Volumetric Rendering in Realtime at http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20011003/boyd_01.htm

or Nvidia's Fog Polygon volumes. Technique is similar to one described by Wyman And Rames in ShaderX 7 "A hybrid Method for Interactive Shadows in Homogeneous Media".

Yet it does not use any shadow volumes.

It uses naive ray marching method, but does sampling only inside desired volume.

It can render light shaft and shadow streaks in a volume as well as coloured light sources.

It does introduce aliasing and undersampling artifacts, if volume is too large.

It's uses a per pixel volume marching, but I was suprised with the results. A volume can also use a gobo as a color modifier.

Idea is simple, given world position (from deferred pass)

render as deferred light but: (in 1/4 resolution)

1. backDepth pass:

render depth of backfaces of a volume in different render target (backDepth)

(Cull CW, disable ZWrite, enable ZEnable, ZFunc always, depthStencil from deferred pass)

compare Z (depth) with Z from scene depth

if sceneDepth.z less then backDepth.z then backdepth =sceneDepth

2. frontDepth pass:

render front faces,

(Cull CCW, enable ZWrite, enable ZWrite, ZFunc lessEqual, depthStencil from deferred pass)

vector4 midPos = frontDepth - backDepth;

vector4 pointInVolume

vector4 vLightPosInFog

for(int i = 0; i less num_samples;i++)

{

pointInVolume = frontDepth - (mid_pos)*len; // traverse from backDepth to frontDepth

vLightPosInFog = transform pInVolume.xyz with matViewToLightProj; // project to light space

// inShade = tex2Dproj(ShadowMapSampler, vLightPosFrontFog).r;

// if inShade less than vLightPosInFog.z then isInShadow

if IsInShadow(pointInVolume) then shade_fog++;

}

shade_fog = shade_fog*inv_num_samples; // shadow streaks

Were len is a distance from 0.0 to 1.0;

You can either do evenly distributed sampling or jittered sampling for len.

Do the same but sample gobo texture, wihout comparison, just add texture color.

Performance on ATI Radeon 4870 is ~60 FPS.

SSDO

2009-02-03T09:30:00.002+01:00

Right now i am banging my head with Approximating Dynamic Global Illumination in Image Space.

Explicitly parallelize additions !

2009-02-03T09:24:00.002+01:00

remember that
float a = b+c+d+e;
can be parallelized with:
float a = dot(float4(b,c,d,e,), 1.0f);
in shaders.

Shadow comparison

2008-10-14T18:42:00.005+02:00

Raw tex2D(ShadowMap, ShadowTexCoord)

Blured version of tex2D(ShadowMap, ShadowTexCoord)

PCSS

Blurred version of PCSS

notice more even distribution of shadows on a cheek, under nose, and over eyes.

Soft shadow support

2008-10-14T18:00:00.006+02:00

I have added PCSS support to my software.
You can see results on the image.
Performance is not bad neither.

3 Spotligths 16 samples blocker search, 16 samples PCF.

It took me a day to tweek everything, so that now it is more or less error prone (i hope).
Some links:
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/whitepapers/2008/PCSS_Integration.pdf

So whats new now

2008-07-18T01:20:00.006+02:00

Recently i have been adding some new features to software. I am really disappointed, cause content producing guys do not use all the possibilites of the software. So i added some functionality that is completly transparent to use, ie. automatic. Above are some scenes from last season, i set the materials, No characters this time ! Scenes use glow and depth of field but no SSAO.

From AI

2008-05-27T20:27:00.003+02:00

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_m97_kL4ox0
this is sweet !

the old skul tip & trick

2008-03-31T12:24:00.000+02:00

sin cos table old skul

back to the 32bit roots ?

2008-03-28T19:52:00.004+01:00

Profiler in VS2005 on 64-bit OS is not working !?
Nor is profiling in VS2008 working on wow64. Damn.

As always, shadows on my mind... poor man's VSM mapping

2008-03-09T20:12:00.011+01:00

Pros: Quite fast with soft edge (non-realistic) shadows

Cons: Edge bleeding

Should do Poisson filtering with depth difference when blurring, to avoid it !

The main idea is really simple:

1.We render depth buffer since we need it for SSAO.

2.We render a shadow calculation pass. to get shadow contributions to the scene. Shadow map resolutions can be low, standard problems with insufficient sampling will occur anyhow. Try something like PSM or similar.

3. So now you have black and white image with shadows only (notice poor resolution of shadow maps on the far wall): 4. A SSAO full resolution pass

Modulate SSAO and full screen shadow map pass , downsample 4x, blur horizontally and verticaly two times and upsample back to screen resolution .

Final result: lightning with modulated shadowing from 2 spot lights and combined SSAO pass. Notice smooth shadows of the far wall.

Edge detect using shadow contribution pass and SSAO post process, could be used to do different blurs depending on depth change.

Cheers,

Tex

... some more

2008-01-21T00:28:00.000+01:00

at the end of the day, some more SSAO.

darkness is comming...

2008-01-20T03:38:00.000+01:00

this SSAO thing, I kinda like it ;)
Post process passes: SSAO->DownSample->BlurH->BlurV->UpSample->Overlay
Depth Texture size: 256x256, Normal Texture size: 1024
Normal texture size should be bigger to avoid artifacts.

BUT... the more i look at it, the more creases bother me. So its acctualy "Ambient Occlusive Crease Shading". This paper is more interesting.

SSAO

2008-01-20T03:21:00.000+01:00

Image space ambient occlusion or Screen space ambient occlusion, based on http://www.shalinor.com/code.html and http://rgba.scenesp.org/iq/computer/articles/ssao/ssao.htm

gpgpu forums

code for copy paste ... but more instructions...maybe change g_cKernelSize to 8 or 12...

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// File: PP_SSAO.fx
//
// Desc: Effect file for image post-processing sample. This effect contains
// a single technique with a pixel shader that calculates simple SSAO
// uses full screen depth and normals
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
texture Albedo; // Here are normals
texture NormalMap; // Here is depth
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Texture samplers
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sampler AlbedoSampler = sampler_state {
Texture = (Albedo);
MipFilter = LINEAR;
MinFilter = LINEAR;
MagFilter = LINEAR;
ADDRESSU = WRAP;
ADDRESSV = WRAP;
};
sampler NormalMapSampler = sampler_state {
Texture = (NormalMap);
MipFilter = NONE;
MinFilter = LINEAR;
MagFilter = LINEAR;
ADDRESSU = WRAP;
ADDRESSV = WRAP;
};

static const int g_cKernelSize = 24;
float2 PixelKernel[g_cKernelSize ] = {
{-0.326212f, -0.405805f},
{-0.840144f, -0.07358f},
{-0.695914f, 0.457137f},
{-0.203345f, 0.620716f},
{ 0.96234f, -0.194983f},
{ 0.473434f, -0.480026f},
{-0.519456f, 0.767022f},
{ 0.185461f, -0.893124f},
{ 0.507431f, 0.064425f},
{ 0.89642f, 0.412458f},
{-0.32194f, -0.932615f},
{-0.791559f, -0.597705f},
{ 0.326212f, -0.405805f},
{ 0.840144f, -0.07358f},
{ 0.695914f, 0.457137f},
{ 0.203345f, 0.620716f},
{-0.96234f, -0.194983f},
{-0.473434f, -0.480026f},
{ 0.519456f, 0.767022f},
{-0.185461f, -0.893124f},
{-0.507431f, 0.064425f},
{-0.89642f, 0.412458f},
{ 0.32194f, -0.932615f},
{ 0.791559f, -0.597705f}
};

float2 TexelKernel[g_cKernelSize]
< convertpixelstotexels512 = "PixelKernel">;

//float3 Settings (AOCreaseValues - Range, Bias, Averager, Unused)
float4 Settings = { 0.4196,-0.2510,4.8471,3.0627 };
float4 SettingsB = { 25.8824,1.0000,1.0000,1.0000 };

float4 PostProcessPS( float2 Tex : TEXCOORD0 ) : COLOR0
{
// Get center sample
float UVlr = 1/256;
float2 centeredUV = Tex;
float3 centerPos = tex2D(AlbedoSampler, centeredUV).xyz; // normals
float3 centerNormal = tex2D(NormalMapSampler, centeredUV).xyz; // depth
float4 totalGI = 1.0f;
float GI = 0.0f;

// Run through all taps
for (int i = 0; i < sampleuv =" centeredUV" samplepos =" tex2D(AlbedoSampler," tocenter =" samplePos" distance =" length(toCenter);" centercontrib =" saturate((dot(toCenter,centerNormal)" rangeattenuation =" 1-saturate(distance" totalgi =" float4(GI,GI,GI,1.0f);" vertexshader =" null;" pixelshader =" compile" zenable =" false;">

2007-03-30T11:42:00.000+02:00

http://abi.exdream.com/
http://creators.xna.com/
http://live.xbox.com/
http://www.codeplex.com/animationcomponents
http://letskilldave.com/default.aspx
http://community.code-geeks.com/
http://www.ziggyware.com/
http://www.xnatutorial.com/
http://www.xnaresources.com/

Software in three weeks !

2006-09-29T13:16:00.000+02:00

It's impossible to write a scriptable multi purpuse framework/application in three weeks.
Believe me, i tried.
At least if you want to keep the person you care about.

4th law of robotics !

2006-07-05T11:08:00.000+02:00

MS Robotics Studio is great ! .NET ! CCR ! PhysiX ! State !
Great tool for prototyping and programming !

And the CCR is out, and you can use it !

The concept behind is awesome. State driven. Transitions, Behavior, Orchestration !
Had the idea years ago to do something like that, but I could not do it so good.
So the concept stayed in a drawer. I used some of the ideas for building of discreet simulation environment and the framework behind it.
Now the basics are done, infrastructure is great !

Now I will:
Make simulation ... I wonder if it's possible ... hmmm ... I will dig in ...
Make a rendering engine, connect, then abuse my imagination.
Lets make unpredictable environments, lets do the neural networks, favorite swarms, GA, GP, lets make some AI ! Wolfram here I come...

CA for paralell prediction models and simulators you've never seen before. Distributed chess anyone ?

But play as a figure... I will play for pawn, Who will be the queen, who's the king ? doesn't matter... you'll be simulated anyhow, like 30 million times in a second. And pawn will win, of course.

Go ahead, try it, make something with it !

Sim

2006-03-29T12:11:00.000+02:00

i have been working a lot on this simulator, the project is nearing its finish. Still has some issues (you can say bugs) and then some optimizations have to be done...

A shell and a cloud

2005-10-25T10:19:00.000+02:00

Need some task based scripting or better command line for Windows ? Get this shell, still in beta, but still very nice. There is an article at arstechnica.
Right now i am in working on how to render clouds. This is not going to be so easy. None of the techiques satisfy all the needs. Or they are too expensive for realtime or they don't look good enough. i'll be back with more info.

Software design !

2005-10-21T10:10:00.000+02:00

Check this essay, it is about software design, by Jack W.Reeves, i think it's like "uh man, from what planet are you". A must read !!

Some articles

2005-10-12T10:49:00.000+02:00

When we plan for software evolution, we need not fear product revolution. Using the concepts described in this paper, you can begin to design your business products so that they will be better able to quickly adapt to marketing challenges.
http://bdn.borland.com/article/0,1410,31994,00.html

Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management - One of the reasons good management is so hard to learn is that much of management takes place behind closed doors. We’re going to open those doors and allow you to see great management in action.By Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby

Syndromes of Forgotten Programmers - The people who come and go in a software shop may eventually be forgotten, but the tracks programmers leave behind make a lasting impression.By Kevin Cauble

C U B A

2005-09-30T13:12:00.000+02:00

CUBA LIBRE PARA TODOS !
20. - 28.9.2005
Spent a fortune, seen a lot of happy people.
The problem is that they have no access to any information in this world.
They live, and believe that someday will be better !
And it will be, it will be.

Heard a lot of The Beatles and even more salsa.
Need some noise now, to clear my mind !

Motorcycles

2005-09-30T12:46:00.000+02:00

Keep the Pace, drive safe and always wave to bikers !

Any how, i have been rather busy working on some very interesting stuff i can not talk about.
There are plenty of shaders, HDR, some behavioral and dynamic animation, and a lot of AI.

Coding

2005-03-05T20:24:00.000+01:00

I have re-written a sound capture plugin - that can capture from 4 stereo lines (8 channels max) and rewrote all blend shape calculation functions.
I have tried to do it in a simple way and do things realy fast.

Ah yes, multichannel sound comes from USB 2.0 (480 Mbit/s) device capable of delivering 96kHz, but i am taking 44.1 only. Not that i would need this much for what i do with streams (8000 Hz would suffice)

When app was up and running, after all the characters were properly set, a sudden frame rate drop occured. Why ?

It seems that audio device completly slows down the computer.

Ah yes, did the proper material library for shaders. PS2.0
Diffuse,Phong,Blinn,Minnaert,Oren-Nayar, Ward,Schlick,Cook-Torrance.
Versions are: noTex,Tex,Bump,Environment+Bump

So shaders anyone ?

Books

2005-02-20T14:48:00.000+01:00

I got new credit card and guess what: i went spending right away - i wanted Books - not one, but a whole shelf of them; and i bought them all, the ones that were on my list for some time, the recommended ones, the ones that others also bought when they bought the recommended one. shit. i spent a small fortune for the books in a matter of minutes.
ok, at least i didn't bought a car. But i might get a motorcycle. After i'll read all the books, of course.

And I got a Laptop

2005-02-20T13:56:00.000+01:00

Nice piece and i sure as hell don't understand why they put home edition xp on hardware like this.
Disks are kinda slow, but display is superb and battery life is quite good. I like it. I like that it has Radeon 9600/9700, so i can run all PS2.0 on it, but once it comes to floating point textures, 64MB vram is just not enough.
One more thing i don't understand with notebook manufacturers is, why do they have to put so many different progies with it. Do i realy need a touch pad icon, a touch and launch, a zoom an X icon and 30 other small never gona-to-be used programs loaded, expanding over half of the task bar? come on. I disabled most of them, and still there is like 17 icons. Hey! Don't waste my desk space, I need it for other things (icons probably).

So here i am

2005-01-14T12:12:00.000+01:00

I decide to step out of the darkness and started to share my thoughts and free-time work with internet community.
I hope I will manage to update this blog as often as possible: ideas, examples, demos, etc.
and that not all of the posts will be as short as this.