Advanced Lighting Techniques

This program demonstrates several advanced lighting techniques including High Dynamic Range and crepuscular or “god rays”.

Lighting in digital scenes normally ranges from zero – fully black, to one – fully bright. High dynamic range allows lights to take on very large values, then those values are mapped back to the zero-to-one range using tone mapping. This program dynamically adapts its tone mapping based on the brightness of the objects in view over time.

Crepuscular rays are a visual effect caused when light is scattered as it passes through air, like a shaft of sunlight penetrating through the clouds. This program simulates this effect using a screen-space technique.