[sldev] screen space ambient occlusion

[Alex Suter]

I have to agree with Qarl and others. Ambient occlusion is great stuff.
If you want approximately correct lighting done quickly, it's a perfect
trick. Add in some direct shadowing and you're well on your way.

Some day computers will be fast enough to do full radiosity/raytracing/
whatever at 60fps, but we're not there yet.


Karl Stiefvater wrote:
> always SO much negativity on this list!
> 
> the ssoa work is being done by a student as a part of the google summer 
> of code program.  he's not "stealing" resources from anything else.
> 
> trust me - when done correctly - ambient occlusion increases realism.  
> the technique was invented/discovered in the film "pearl harbor" and has 
> been used in EVERYTHING since.  because it looks good.
> 
> 
> K.
> 
> On Jul 26, 2008, at 6:50 AM, Argent Stonecutter wrote:
> 
>> I think you're on a better path with shadowing. Getting shadowing 
>> right is better than trying to fake it with 'ambient occlusion' hacks. 
>> They lead to unnatural shadows in corners that just scream "computer 
>> generated" to me. That pile of box is showing a bunch of examples of 
>> that. If you count two blocks across from the bottom, there's three 
>> blocks on the ground leading away from the camera with a fourth block 
>> on top of the third block. The lower left corner of the front face of 
>> that block is visibly darker than the rest of the block. In real life 
>> that face would be almost uniformly illuminated.
> 
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