High dynamic range rendering
Encyclopedia
In 3D computer graphics
, 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 a larger dynamic range
. This allows preservation of details that may be lost due to limiting contrast ratios. Video games and computer-generated movies and special effects
benefit from this as it creates more realistic scenes than with the more simplistic lighting models used.
Graphics processor company Nvidia
summarizes the motivation for HDRR in three points:
1) bright things can be really bright, 2) dark things can be really dark, and 3) details can be seen in both.
(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 has the technology to put HDRI into practical use been developed.
In 1990, Nakame, et al., 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 glare 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 lightprobe 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 Software
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 Valve Software announced Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
and Epic Games
showcased Unreal Engine 3, coupled with open-source engines such as OGRE 3D and open-source games like Nexuiz
.
Another aspect of HDR rendering is the addition of perceptual cues which increase apparent brightness. HDR rendering also affects how light is preserved in optical phenomena such as reflections
and refraction
s, as well as transparent materials such as glass. In LDR rendering, very bright light sources in a scene (such as the sun) are capped at 1.0. When this light is reflected the result must then be less than or equal to 1.0. However, in HDR rendering, very bright light sources can exceed the 1.0 brightness to simulate their actual values. This allows reflections off surfaces to maintain realistic brightness for bright light sources.
can perceive scenes with a very high dynamic contrast ratio
, around 1,000,000:1. Adaptation
is achieved in part through adjustments of the iris
and slow chemical changes, which take some time (e.g. the delay in being able to see when switching from bright lighting to pitch darkness). At any given time, the eye's static range is smaller, around 10,000:1. However, this is still generally higher than the static range achievable by most display technology.
can only deliver a fraction of the contrast ratio found in the real world, and these are usually measured under ideal conditions. The simultaneous contrast of real content under normal viewing conditions is significantly lower.
Some increase in dynamic range in LCD monitors can be achieved by automatically reducing the backlight for dark scenes (LG calls it Digital Fine Contrast, Samsung are quoting "dynamic contrast ratio"), or having an array of brighter and darker LED backlights (BrightSide Technologies – now part of Dolby, and Samsung in development).
Otherwise, HDR rendering systems have to map the full dynamic range to what the eye would see in the rendered situation onto the capabilities of the device. This tone mapping
is done relative to what the virtual scene camera sees, combined with several full screen effect
s, e.g. to simulate dust in the air which is lit by direct sunlight in a dark cavern, or the scattering in the eye.
Tone mapping
and blooming shaders
, can be used together help simulate these effects.
, Microsoft
's Xbox 360
, and Sony
's PlayStation 3
. It has also been simulated on the PlayStation 2
, GameCube, Xbox
and Amiga
systems. Sproing Interactive Media has announced that their new Athena game engine for the Wii
will support HDRR, adding Wii to the list of systems that support it.
In desktop publishing
and gaming, color values are often processed several times over. As this includes multiplication and division (which can accumulate rounding errors
), it is useful to have the extended accuracy and range of 16 bit integer or 16 bit floating point
formats. This is useful irrespective of the aforementioned limitations in some hardware.
with DirectX 8. Shader Model 1.0 illuminated 3D worlds with what is called standard lighting. Standard lighting, however, had two problems:
Before HDRR was fully developed and implemented, games may have attempted to enhance the contrast of a scene by exaggerating the final render's contrast (as seen in Need For Speed: Underground 2
s "Enhanced contrast" setting) or using some other color correction method (such as in certain scenes in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
).
On December 24, 2002, Microsoft
released a new version of DirectX
. DirectX 9.0 introduced Shader Model 2.0, which offered one of the necessary components to enable rendering of high dynamic range images: lighting precision was not limited to just 8-bits. Although 8-bits was the minimum in applications, programmers could choose up to a maximum of 24 bits for lighting precision. However, all calculations were still integer-based. One of the first graphics cards to support DirectX 9.0 natively was ATI's
Radeon 9700
, though the effect wasn't programmed into games for years afterwards. On August 23, 2003, Microsoft updated DirectX to DirectX 9.0b, which enabled the Pixel Shader 2.x (Extended) profile for ATI's Radeon X series
and NVIDIA's GeForce FX
series of graphics processing units.
On August 9, 2004, Microsoft updated DirectX once more to DirectX 9.0c. This also exposed the Shader Model 3.0 profile for high level shader language (HLSL)
. Shader Model 3.0's lighting precision has a minimum of 32 bits as opposed to 2.0's 8-bit minimum. Also all lighting-precision calculations are now floating-point based
. NVIDIA
states that contrast ratios using Shader Model 3.0 can be as high as 65535:1 using 32-bit lighting precision. At first, HDRR was only possible on video cards capable of Shader-Model-3.0 effects, but software developers soon added compatibility for Shader Model 2.0. As a side note, when referred to as Shader Model 3.0 HDR, HDRR is really done by FP16 blending. FP16 blending is not part of Shader Model 3.0, but is supported mostly by cards also capable of Shader Model 3.0 (exceptions include the GeForce 6200 series). FP16 blending can be used as a faster way to render HDR in video games.
Shader Model 4.0 is a feature of DirectX 10, which has been released with Windows Vista. Shader Model 4.0 will allow for 128-bit HDR rendering, as opposed to 64-bit HDR in Shader Model 3.0 (although this is theoretically possible under Shader Model 3.0).
Shader Model 5.0 is a feature in DirectX 11, On Windows Vista and Windows 7, it allows 6:1 compression of HDR textures, without noticeable loss, which is prevalent on previous versions of DirectX HDR texture compression techniques.
s that may or can support HDRR. It is implied that because the minimum requirement for HDR rendering is Shader Model 2.0 (or in this case DirectX 9), any graphics card that supports Shader Model 2.0 can do HDR rendering. However, HDRR may greatly impact the performance of the software using it if the device is not sufficiently powerful.
GPUs designed for games
GPUs designed for workstations
, and the decrease of price of capable graphics cards such as the GeForce 6, 7, and Radeon X1000 series, HDR rendering started to become a standard feature in many games in late 2006. Options may exist to turn the feature on or off, as it is stressful for graphics cards to process.
However, certain lighting styles may not benefit from HDR as much, for example, in games containing predominantly dark scenery (or, likewise, predominantly bright scenery), and thus such games may not include HDR in order to boost performance.
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
, high dynamic range rendering (HDRR or HDR rendering), also known as high dynamic range lighting, is the rendering
Rendering (computer graphics)
Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene...
of computer graphics
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
scenes by using lighting
Lighting
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate application of light to achieve some practical or aesthetic effect. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight...
calculations done in a larger dynamic range
Dynamic range
Dynamic range, abbreviated DR or DNR, is the ratio between the largest and smallest possible values of a changeable quantity, such as in sound and light. It is measured as a ratio, or as a base-10 or base-2 logarithmic value.-Dynamic range and human perception:The human senses of sight and...
. This allows preservation of details that may be lost due to limiting contrast ratios. Video games and computer-generated movies and special effects
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
benefit from this as it creates more realistic scenes than with the more simplistic lighting models used.
Graphics processor company Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
summarizes the motivation for HDRR in three points:
1) bright things can be really bright, 2) dark things can be really dark, and 3) details can be seen in both.
History
The use of high dynamic range imagingHigh dynamic range imaging
In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods...
(HDRI) in computer graphics was introduced by Greg Ward in 1985 with his open-source Radiance
Radiance (software)
Radiance is a suite of tools for performing lighting simulation originally written by Greg Ward. It includes a renderer as well as many other tools for measuring the simulated light levels. It uses ray tracing to perform all lighting calculations, accelerated by the use of an octree data structure...
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 has the technology to put HDRI into practical use been developed.
In 1990, Nakame, et al., 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 glare effects for digital images at SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization. The first SIGGRAPH conference was in 1974. The conference is attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals...
, providing a quantitative model for flare and blooming in the human eye.
In 1997 Paul Debevec
Paul Debevec
Paul Debevec is a researcher in computer graphics at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies. He is best known for his pioneering work in high dynamic range imaging and image-based modelling and rendering....
presented Recovering high dynamic range radiance maps from photographs at SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization. The first SIGGRAPH conference was in 1974. The conference is attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals...
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 lightprobe data to provide realistic lighting solutions.
In gaming applications, Riven: The Sequel to Myst
Riven
Riven is a puzzle adventure game and the sequel to Myst. Developed by Cyan Worlds, it was initially published by Brøderbund. Riven was distributed on five compact discs and released on October 29, 1997, in North America; it was later released on a single DVD-ROM, with improved audio and a...
in 1997 used an HDRI postprocessing shader directly based on Spencer's paper. After E³ 2003, Valve Software
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
released a demo movie of their Source engine
Source engine
Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. It debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike: Source and shortly thereafter Half-Life 2, and has been in active development ever since...
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 Valve Software announced Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast is a small additional level for the 2004 first-person shooter video game Half-Life 2. Developed by Valve Software, it was released on October 27, 2005, through the Steam content delivery service as a free download to owners of the Microsoft Windows version of Half-Life 2...
and Epic Games
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...
showcased Unreal Engine 3, coupled with open-source engines such as OGRE 3D and open-source games like Nexuiz
Nexuiz
Nexuiz is a free first-person shooter video game developed and published by Alientrap Software. It is free and open-source software and is distributed under the GNU General Public License . Version 1.0 of the game was released on May 31, 2005. The current version, 2.5.2, was released on October 1,...
.
Examples
One of the primary advantages of HDR rendering is that details in a scene with a large contrast ratio are preserved. Without HDR, areas that are too dark are clipped to black and areas that are too bright are clipped to white. These are represented by the hardware as a floating point value of 0.0 and 1.0 for pure black and pure white, respectively.Another aspect of HDR rendering is the addition of perceptual cues which increase apparent brightness. HDR rendering also affects how light is preserved in optical phenomena such as reflections
Reflection (physics)
Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two differentmedia so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. Common examples include the reflection of light, sound and water waves...
and refraction
Refraction
Refraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change in its speed. It is essentially a surface phenomenon . The phenomenon is mainly in governance to the law of conservation of energy. The proper explanation would be that due to change of medium, the phase velocity of the wave is changed...
s, as well as transparent materials such as glass. In LDR rendering, very bright light sources in a scene (such as the sun) are capped at 1.0. When this light is reflected the result must then be less than or equal to 1.0. However, in HDR rendering, very bright light sources can exceed the 1.0 brightness to simulate their actual values. This allows reflections off surfaces to maintain realistic brightness for bright light sources.
Human eye
The human eyeHuman eye
The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...
can perceive scenes with a very high dynamic contrast ratio
Contrast ratio
The contrast ratio is a property of a display system, defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest color to that of the darkest color that the system is capable of producing...
, around 1,000,000:1. Adaptation
Adaptation (eye)
In ocular physiology, adaptation is the ability of the eye to adjust to various levels of darkness and light.-Efficacy:The human eye can function from very dark to very bright levels of light; its sensing capabilities reach across nine orders of magnitude. This means that the brightest and the...
is achieved in part through adjustments of the iris
Iris (anatomy)
The iris is a thin, circular structure in the eye, responsible for controlling the diameter and size of the pupils and thus the amount of light reaching the retina. "Eye color" is the color of the iris, which can be green, blue, or brown. In some cases it can be hazel , grey, violet, or even pink...
and slow chemical changes, which take some time (e.g. the delay in being able to see when switching from bright lighting to pitch darkness). At any given time, the eye's static range is smaller, around 10,000:1. However, this is still generally higher than the static range achievable by most display technology.
Output to displays
Although many manufacturers claim very high numbers, plasma displays, LCD displays, and CRT displaysCathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
can only deliver a fraction of the contrast ratio found in the real world, and these are usually measured under ideal conditions. The simultaneous contrast of real content under normal viewing conditions is significantly lower.
Some increase in dynamic range in LCD monitors can be achieved by automatically reducing the backlight for dark scenes (LG calls it Digital Fine Contrast, Samsung are quoting "dynamic contrast ratio"), or having an array of brighter and darker LED backlights (BrightSide Technologies – now part of Dolby, and Samsung in development).
Light bloom
Light blooming is the result of scattering in the human lens, which our brain interprets as a bright spot in a scene. For example, a bright light in the background will appear to bleed over onto objects in the foreground. This can be used to create an illusion to make the bright spot appear to be brighter than it really is.Flare
Flare is the diffraction of light in the human lens, resulting in "rays" of light emanating from small light sources, and can also result in some chromatic effects. It is most visible on point light sources because of their small visual angle.Otherwise, HDR rendering systems have to map the full dynamic range to what the eye would see in the rendered situation onto the capabilities of the device. This tone mapping
Tone mapping
Tone mapping is a technique used in image processing and computer graphics to map one set of colors to another in order to approximate the appearance of high dynamic range images in a medium that has a more limited dynamic range...
is done relative to what the virtual scene camera sees, combined with several full screen effect
Full screen effect
A full screen effect is a graphics technique that is applied to the entire screen, usually in postprocessing stage...
s, e.g. to simulate dust in the air which is lit by direct sunlight in a dark cavern, or the scattering in the eye.
Tone mapping
Tone mapping
Tone mapping is a technique used in image processing and computer graphics to map one set of colors to another in order to approximate the appearance of high dynamic range images in a medium that has a more limited dynamic range...
and blooming shaders
Bloom (shader effect)
Bloom is a computer graphics effect used in computer games, demos and high dynamic range rendering to reproduce an imaging artifact of real-world cameras. The effect produces fringes of light around very bright objects in an image, obscuring fine details...
, can be used together help simulate these effects.
Tone mapping
Tone mapping, in the context of graphics rendering, is a technique used to map colors from high dynamic range (in which lighting calculations are performed) to a lower dynamic range that matches the capabilities of the desired display device. Typically, the mapping is non-linear – it preserves enough range for dark colors and gradually limits the dynamic range for bright colors. This technique often produces visually appealing images with good overall detail and contrast. Various tone mapping operators exist, ranging from simple real-time methods used in computer games to more sophisticated techniques that attempt to imitate the perceptual response of the human visual system.Applications in computer entertainment
Currently HDRR has been prevalent in games, primarily for PCsPersonal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, and Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. It has also been simulated on the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, GameCube, Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
and Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
systems. Sproing Interactive Media has announced that their new Athena game engine for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
will support HDRR, adding Wii to the list of systems that support it.
In desktop publishing
DTP
-Computing:* Distributed transaction processing, in computer systems, usually refers to the X/Open model of co-ordinating transactions between multiple participants* Desktop publishing, a technological publishing method * Dynamic Trunking Protocol...
and gaming, color values are often processed several times over. As this includes multiplication and division (which can accumulate rounding errors
Round-off error
A round-off error, also called rounding error, is the difference between the calculated approximation of a number and its exact mathematical value. Numerical analysis specifically tries to estimate this error when using approximation equations and/or algorithms, especially when using finitely many...
), it is useful to have the extended accuracy and range of 16 bit integer or 16 bit floating point
Floating point
In computing, floating point describes a method of representing real numbers in a way that can support a wide range of values. Numbers are, in general, represented approximately to a fixed number of significant digits and scaled using an exponent. The base for the scaling is normally 2, 10 or 16...
formats. This is useful irrespective of the aforementioned limitations in some hardware.
Development of HDRR through DirectX
Complex shader effects began their days with the release of Shader Model 1.0Shader
In the field of computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that is used primarily to calculate rendering effects on graphics hardware with a high degree of flexibility...
with DirectX 8. Shader Model 1.0 illuminated 3D worlds with what is called standard lighting. Standard lighting, however, had two problems:
- Lighting precision was confined to 8 bit integers, which limited the contrast ratio to 256:1. Using the HVS color model, the value (V), or brightness of a color has a range of 0 – 255. This means the brightest white (a value of 255) is only 256 levels brighter than the darkest shade above pure black (i.e.: value of 0).
- Lighting calculations were integerIntegerThe integers are formed by the natural numbers together with the negatives of the non-zero natural numbers .They are known as Positive and Negative Integers respectively...
based, which didn't offer as much accuracy because the real world is not confined to whole numbers.
Before HDRR was fully developed and implemented, games may have attempted to enhance the contrast of a scene by exaggerating the final render's contrast (as seen in Need For Speed: Underground 2
Need for Speed: Underground 2
Need for Speed: Underground 2 is a cross-platform racing video game published and developed by Electronic Arts. Released in 2004, it is the direct sequel to Need for Speed: Underground, and is part of the Need for Speed series, available on Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance,...
s "Enhanced contrast" setting) or using some other color correction method (such as in certain scenes in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
is an award-winning stealth action video game directed by Hideo Kojima. Snake Eater was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2, and was released on November 17, 2004 in North America; December 16, 2004 in Japan; March 4, 2005 in Europe; and on...
).
On December 24, 2002, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
released a new version of DirectX
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
. DirectX 9.0 introduced Shader Model 2.0, which offered one of the necessary components to enable rendering of high dynamic range images: lighting precision was not limited to just 8-bits. Although 8-bits was the minimum in applications, programmers could choose up to a maximum of 24 bits for lighting precision. However, all calculations were still integer-based. One of the first graphics cards to support DirectX 9.0 natively was ATI's
Ati
As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa...
Radeon 9700
Radeon R300
The Radeon R300 is the third generation of Radeon graphics chips from ATI Technologies. The line features 3D acceleration based upon Direct3D 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0, a major improvement in features and performance compared to the preceding Radeon R200 design. R300 was the first fully Direct3D...
, though the effect wasn't programmed into games for years afterwards. On August 23, 2003, Microsoft updated DirectX to DirectX 9.0b, which enabled the Pixel Shader 2.x (Extended) profile for ATI's Radeon X series
Radeon R420
The Radeon R420 core from ATI Technologies was the company's basis for its 3rd-generation DirectX 9.0/OpenGL 2.0-capable graphics cards. Used first on the Radeon X800, R420 was produced on a 0.13 micrometer low-K process and used GDDR-3 memory...
and NVIDIA's GeForce FX
GeForce FX
The GeForce FX or "GeForce 5" series is a line of graphics processing units from the manufacturer NVIDIA.-Overview:...
series of graphics processing units.
On August 9, 2004, Microsoft updated DirectX once more to DirectX 9.0c. This also exposed the Shader Model 3.0 profile for high level shader language (HLSL)
High Level Shader Language
The High Level Shader Language or High Level Shading Language is a proprietary shading language developed by Microsoft for use with the Microsoft Direct3D API. It is analogous to the GLSL shading language used with the OpenGL standard...
. Shader Model 3.0's lighting precision has a minimum of 32 bits as opposed to 2.0's 8-bit minimum. Also all lighting-precision calculations are now floating-point based
FLOPS
In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second...
. NVIDIA
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
states that contrast ratios using Shader Model 3.0 can be as high as 65535:1 using 32-bit lighting precision. At first, HDRR was only possible on video cards capable of Shader-Model-3.0 effects, but software developers soon added compatibility for Shader Model 2.0. As a side note, when referred to as Shader Model 3.0 HDR, HDRR is really done by FP16 blending. FP16 blending is not part of Shader Model 3.0, but is supported mostly by cards also capable of Shader Model 3.0 (exceptions include the GeForce 6200 series). FP16 blending can be used as a faster way to render HDR in video games.
Shader Model 4.0 is a feature of DirectX 10, which has been released with Windows Vista. Shader Model 4.0 will allow for 128-bit HDR rendering, as opposed to 64-bit HDR in Shader Model 3.0 (although this is theoretically possible under Shader Model 3.0).
Shader Model 5.0 is a feature in DirectX 11, On Windows Vista and Windows 7, it allows 6:1 compression of HDR textures, without noticeable loss, which is prevalent on previous versions of DirectX HDR texture compression techniques.
Development of HDRR through OpenGL
It is possible to develop HDRR through GLSL shader starting from OpenGL 1.4 onwards.GPUs that support HDRR
This is a list of graphics processing unitGraphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
s that may or can support HDRR. It is implied that because the minimum requirement for HDR rendering is Shader Model 2.0 (or in this case DirectX 9), any graphics card that supports Shader Model 2.0 can do HDR rendering. However, HDRR may greatly impact the performance of the software using it if the device is not sufficiently powerful.
GPUs designed for games
| Shader Model 2 Compliant (Includes versions 2.0, 2.0a and 2.0b) | |
|---|---|
| From ATI Ati As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa... |
R300 series Radeon R300 The Radeon R300 is the third generation of Radeon graphics chips from ATI Technologies. The line features 3D acceleration based upon Direct3D 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0, a major improvement in features and performance compared to the preceding Radeon R200 design. R300 was the first fully Direct3D... : 9500, 9500 Pro, 9550, 9550 SE, 9600, 9600 SE, 9600 TX, 9600 AIW, 9600 Pro, 9600 XT, 9650, 9700, 9700 AIW, 9700 Pro, 9800, 9800 SE, 9800 AIW, 9800 Pro, 9800XT, X300, X300 SE, X550, X600 AIW, X600 Pro, X600 XT R420 series Radeon R420 The Radeon R420 core from ATI Technologies was the company's basis for its 3rd-generation DirectX 9.0/OpenGL 2.0-capable graphics cards. Used first on the Radeon X800, R420 was produced on a 0.13 micrometer low-K process and used GDDR-3 memory... : X700, X700 Pro, X700 XT, X800, X800SE, X800 GT, X800 GTO, X800 Pro, X800 AIW, X800 XL, X800 XT, X800 XTPE, X850 Pro, X850 XT, X850 XTPE Radeon RS690: X1200 mobility |
| From NVIDIA NVIDIA Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles... |
GeForce FX (includes PCX versions) GeForce FX The GeForce FX or "GeForce 5" series is a line of graphics processing units from the manufacturer NVIDIA.-Overview:... : 5100, 5200, 5200 SE/XT, 5200 Ultra, 5300, 5500, 5600, 5600 SE/XT, 5600 Ultra, 5700, 5700 VE, 5700 LE, 5700 Ultra, 5750, 5800, 5800 Ultra, 5900 5900 ZT, 5900 SE/XT, 5900 Ultra, 5950, 5950 Ultra |
| From S3 Graphics S3 Graphics S3 Graphics, Ltd is an American company specializing in graphics chipsets. Although they do not have the large market share that they once had, they still produce graphics accelerators for home computers under the "S3 Chrome" brand name.-History:... |
Delta Chrome: S4, S4 Pro, S8, S8 Nitro, F1, F1 Pole Gamma Chrome: S18 Pro, S18 Ultra, S25, S27 |
| From SiS Silicon Integrated Systems Silicon Integrated Systems is a company that manufactures, among other things, motherboard chipsets. The company was founded in 1987 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan.-Business:... |
Xabre: Xabre II |
| From XGI | Volari: V3 XT, V5, V5, V8, V8 Ultra, Duo V5 Ultra, Duo V8 Ultra, 8300, 8600, 8600 XT |
| Shader Model 3.0 Compliant | |
| From ATI Ati As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa... |
R520 series Radeon R520 ATI's "R520" core is the foundation for a line of DirectX 9.0c and OpenGL 2.0 3D accelerator X1000 video cards. It is ATI's first major architectural overhaul since the "R300" core and is highly optimized for Shader Model 3.0. The Radeon X1000 series using the core was introduced on October 5,... : X1300 HyperMemory HyperMemory HyperMemory is ATI Technologies' method of using the motherboard's main system RAM as part of or all of the video card's framebuffer memory on their line of Radeon video cards and motherboard chipsets... Edition, X1300, X1300 Pro, X1600 Pro, X1600 XT, X1650 Pro, X1650 XT, X1800 GTO, X1800 XL AIW, X1800 XL, X1800 XT, X1900 AIW, X1900 GT, X1900 XT, X1900 XTX, X1950 Pro, X1950 XT, X1950 XTX, Xenos (Xbox 360) |
| From NVIDIA NVIDIA Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles... |
GeForce 6: 6100, 6150, 6200 LE, 6200, 6200 TC, 6250, 6500, 6600, 6600 LE, 6600 DDR2, 6600 GT, 6610 XL, 6700 XL, 6800, 6800 LE, 6800 XT, 6800 GS, 6800 GTO, 6800 GT, 6800 Ultra, 6800 Ultra Extreme GeForce 7: 7300 LE, 7300 GS, 7300 GT, 7600 GS, 7600 GT, 7800 GS, 7800 GT, 7800 GTX, 7800 GTX 512MB, 7900 GS, 7900 GT, 7950 GT, 7900 GTO, 7900 GTX, 7900 GX2, 7950 GX2, 7950 GT, RSX (PlayStation 3) |
| Shader Model 4.0/4.1* Compliant | |
| From ATI Ati As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa... |
R600 series Radeon R600 The graphics processing unit codenamed the Radeon R600 is the foundation of the Radeon HD 2000/3000 series and the FireGL 2007 series video cards developed by ATI Technologies... : HD 2900 XT, HD 2900 Pro, HD 2900 GT, HD 2600 XT, HD 2600 Pro, HD 2400 XT, HD 2400 Pro, HD 2350, HD 3870*, HD 3850*, HD 3650*, HD 3470*, HD 3450*, HD 3870 X2* R700 series Radeon R700 The Radeon R700 is the engineering codename for a graphics processing unit series developed by Advanced Micro Devices under the ATI brand name. The foundation chip, codenamed RV770, was announced and demonstrated on June 16, 2008 as part of the FireStream 9250 and Cinema 2.0 initiative launch media... : HD 4870 X2, HD 4890, HD 4870*, HD4850*, HD 4670*, HD 4650* |
| From NVIDIA NVIDIA Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles... |
GeForce 8: 8800 Ultra, 8800 GTX, 8800 GT, 8800 GTS, 8800GTS 512MB, 8800GS, 8600 GTS, 8600 GT, 8600M GS, 8600M GT, 8500 GT, 8400 GS, 8300 GS, 8300 GT, 8300 GeForce 9 Series GeForce 9 Series The GeForce 9 Series is the ninth generation of NVIDIA's GeForce series of graphics processing units, the first of which was released on February 21, 2008.-Geforce 9300GE :*65nm G98 GPU*PCI-E x16*64 Bit Bus Width*4 ROP, 8 Unified Shaders... : 9800 GX2, 9800 GTX (+), 9800 GT, 9600 GT, 9600 GSO, 9500 GT, 9400 GT, 9300 GT, 9300 GS, 9200 GT GeForce 200 Series GeForce 200 Series The GeForce 200 Series is the 10th generation of Nvidia's GeForce graphics processing units. The series also represents the continuation of the company's unified shader architecture introduced with the GeForce 8 Series and the GeForce 9 Series. Its primary competition came from ATI's Radeon HD 4000... : GTX 295, GTX 285, GTX 280, GTX 275, GTX 260, GTS 250, GTS240, GT240*, GT220* |
| Shader Model 5.0 Compliant | |
| From ATI Ati As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa... |
R800 Series Radeon R800 The Evergreen series is a family of GPUs developed by Advanced Micro Devices for its Radeon line under the ATI brand name.-Release:The existence was spotted on a presentation slide from AMD Technology Analyst Day July 2007 as "R8xx"... : HD 5750, HD 5770, HD 5850, HD 5870, HD 5870 X2, HD 5970* R900 Series Northern Islands (GPU family) The Northern Islands series is a family of GPUs developed by Advanced Micro Devices for its Radeon line, based on the 40 nm process.Starting with this family, the former ATI brand was officially discontinued in favor of making a correlation between the graphics products and the AMD branding for... : HD 6990, HD 6970, HD 6950, HD 6870, HD 6850, HD 6770, HD 6750, HD 6670, HD 6570, HD 6450 |
| From NVIDIA NVIDIA Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles... |
GeForce 400 Series GeForce 400 Series The GeForce 400 Series is the 11th generation of Nvidia's GeForce graphics processing units. The series was originally slated for production in November 2009, but, after a number of delays, launched on March 26, 2010 with availability following in April 2010.... : GTX 480, GTX 475, GTX 470, GTX 465, GTX 460 GeForce 500 Series GeForce 500 Series The GeForce 500 Series is a family of graphics processing units developed by Nvidia, based on the refreshed Fermi architecture. Nvidia officially announced the GeForce 500 series on 9 November 2010 with the launch of the GeForce GTX 580.- Overview :... : GTX 590, GTX 580, GTX 570, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 550 Ti |
GPUs designed for workstations
| Shader Model 2 Compliant (Includes versions 2.0, 2.0a and 2.0b) | |
|---|---|
| From ATI Ati As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa... |
FireGL: Z1-128, T2-128, X1-128, X2-256, X2-256t, V3100, V3200, X3-256, V5000, V5100, V7100 |
| From NVIDIA NVIDIA Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles... |
Quadro FX NVIDIA Quadro The Nvidia Quadro series of AGP, PCI, and PCI Express graphics cards comes from the NVIDIA Corporation. Their designers aimed to accelerate CAD and DCC , and the cards are usually featured in workstations.... : 330, 500, 600, 700, 1000, 1100, 1300, 2000, 3000 |
| Shader Model 3.0 Compliant | |
| From ATI Ati As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa... |
FireGL: V7300, V7350 |
| From NVIDIA NVIDIA Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles... |
Quadro FX NVIDIA Quadro The Nvidia Quadro series of AGP, PCI, and PCI Express graphics cards comes from the NVIDIA Corporation. Their designers aimed to accelerate CAD and DCC , and the cards are usually featured in workstations.... : 350, 540, 550, 560, 1400, 1500, 3400, 3450, 3500, 4000, 4400, 4500, 4500SDI, 4500 X2, 5500, 5500SDI |
| From 3Dlabs 3Dlabs 3DLABS was the name of the fabless semiconductor company that originally developed the GLINT and PERMEDIA high-end graphics chip technology that was used on many of the worlds leading computer graphics cards in the CAD and DCC markets, including its own Wildcat and Oxygen cards.In 2006 the company... |
Wildcat Realizm: 100, 200, 500, 800 |
Video games and HDR rendering
With the release of the seventh generation video game consolesHistory of video game consoles (seventh generation)
In the history of video games, the seventh generation of consoles is the current generation , and includes consoles released since late by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony...
, and the decrease of price of capable graphics cards such as the GeForce 6, 7, and Radeon X1000 series, HDR rendering started to become a standard feature in many games in late 2006. Options may exist to turn the feature on or off, as it is stressful for graphics cards to process.
However, certain lighting styles may not benefit from HDR as much, for example, in games containing predominantly dark scenery (or, likewise, predominantly bright scenery), and thus such games may not include HDR in order to boost performance.
Game Engines that Support HDR Rendering
- Unreal Engine 3Unreal EngineThe Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs and RPGs...
- Source
- CryEngineCryENGINECryEngine is a game engine used for the first-person shooter computer game Far Cry. It was originally developed by Crytek as a technology demo for Nvidia and, when the company saw its potential, it was turned into a game....
, CryEngine 2 , CryEngine 3 - Dunia EngineDunia EngineThe Dunia Engine is a game engine designed by Kirmaan Aboobaker while working at Crytek. It is based on the CryEngine but was heavily modified by the Ubisoft Montréal development team for use in Far Cry 2. A reworked and modified version of the Dunia Engine is used for James Cameron's Avatar: The...
- GamebryoGamebryoGamebryo is a game engine, originally from Numerical Design Limited , and the successor to NDL's NetImmerse engine.Since the creation of Gamebryo, NDL merged into Emergent Game Technologies...
- Unity (game engine)Unity (game engine)Unity is an integrated authoring tool for creating 3D video games or other interactive content such as architectural visualizations or real-time 3D animations. Unity's development environment runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, and the games it produces can be run on Windows, Mac, Xbox 360,...
- id Tech 5Id Tech 5id Tech 5 is the latest proprietary game engine being developed by id Software, currently still being actively upgraded, and follows its predecessors, id Tech 1, 2, 3 and 4. It is a major advancement over id Tech 4. The engine was first demonstrated at the WWDC 2007 by John D...
- LithtechLithtechLithtech is a game engine which was initially developed by Monolith Productions in collaboration with Microsoft. Monolith later formed a separate company, LithTech Inc., to deal with further advancements of the engine technology and currently, after a change of its corporate identity, LithTech Inc...
- UnigineUnigineUnigine Engine is a proprietary cross-platform computer graphics middleware, developed by Unigine Corp. It is used as either a game engine or as an engine for virtual reality systems, serious games and visualization. The most popular Unigine-powered product is .The strongest feature of Unigine is...
External links
- NVIDIA's HDRR technical summary (PDF)
- A HDRR Implementation with OpenGL 2.0
- OpenGL HDRR Implementation
- High Dynamic Range Rendering in OpenGL (PDF)
- High Dynamic Range Imaging environments for Image Based Lighting
- Microsoft's technical brief on SM3.0 in comparison with SM2.0
- Tom's Hardware: New Graphics Card Features of 2006
- List of GPU's compiled by Chris Hare
- techPowerUp! GPU Database
- Understanding Contrast Ratios in Video Display Devices
- Requiem by TBL, featuring real-time HDR rendering in software
- List of video games supporting HDR
- Examples of high dynamic range photography
- Examples of high dynamic range 360-degree panoramic photography