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Per-pixel lighting

 

 
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Per-pixel lighting
 
 
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In computer graphics
Computer graphics

Computer graphics are graphics created by computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of pictorial data by a computer....
, per-pixel lighting is commonly used to refer to a set of methods for computing illumination at each rendered pixel
Pixel

In digital imaging, a pixel is the smallest item of information in an image. Pixels are normally arranged in a 2-dimensional grid, and are often represented using dots, squares, or rectangles....
 of an image. These generally produce more realistic images than vertex lighting
Gouraud shading

Gouraud shading,named after Henri Gouraud , is a method used in computer graphics to simulate the differing effects of light and colour across the surface of an object....
, which only calculates illumination at each vertex of a 3D model and then interpolates
Interpolation

In the mathematics subfield of numerical analysis, interpolation is a method of constructing new data points within the range of a discrete set of known data points....
 the resulting values to calculate the per-pixel color values.

Per-pixel lighting is commonly used with other computer graphics techniques to help improve render quality, including bump mapping
Bump mapping

Bump mapping is a computer graphics technique where at each pixel, a perturbation to the surface normal of the object being rendering is looked up in a heightmap and applied before the illumination calculation is done ....
, specularity
Specularity

Specularity is the quantity used in 3D Rendering which represents the amount of specular reflection a surface has. It is a key component in determining the brightness of specular highlights, along with wikt:shininess to determine the size of the specular highlight....
, phong shading
Phong shading

Phong shading refers to a set of techniques in 3D computer graphics. Phong shading includes a model for the reflection of light from surfaces and a compatible method of estimating pixel colors by interpolation surface normals across rasterized polygons....
 and shadow volumes
Shadow volume

Shadow volume is a technique used in 3D computer graphics to add shadows to a rendered scene. They were first proposed by Franklin C. Crow in 1977 as the geometry describing the 3D shape of the region occluded from a light source....
.

Real-time applications, such as computer games, which use modern graphics cards will normally implement per-pixel lighting algorithms using pixel shaders.






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In computer graphics
Computer graphics

Computer graphics are graphics created by computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of pictorial data by a computer....
, per-pixel lighting is commonly used to refer to a set of methods for computing illumination at each rendered pixel
Pixel

In digital imaging, a pixel is the smallest item of information in an image. Pixels are normally arranged in a 2-dimensional grid, and are often represented using dots, squares, or rectangles....
 of an image. These generally produce more realistic images than vertex lighting
Gouraud shading

Gouraud shading,named after Henri Gouraud , is a method used in computer graphics to simulate the differing effects of light and colour across the surface of an object....
, which only calculates illumination at each vertex of a 3D model and then interpolates
Interpolation

In the mathematics subfield of numerical analysis, interpolation is a method of constructing new data points within the range of a discrete set of known data points....
 the resulting values to calculate the per-pixel color values.

Per-pixel lighting is commonly used with other computer graphics techniques to help improve render quality, including bump mapping
Bump mapping

Bump mapping is a computer graphics technique where at each pixel, a perturbation to the surface normal of the object being rendering is looked up in a heightmap and applied before the illumination calculation is done ....
, specularity
Specularity

Specularity is the quantity used in 3D Rendering which represents the amount of specular reflection a surface has. It is a key component in determining the brightness of specular highlights, along with wikt:shininess to determine the size of the specular highlight....
, phong shading
Phong shading

Phong shading refers to a set of techniques in 3D computer graphics. Phong shading includes a model for the reflection of light from surfaces and a compatible method of estimating pixel colors by interpolation surface normals across rasterized polygons....
 and shadow volumes
Shadow volume

Shadow volume is a technique used in 3D computer graphics to add shadows to a rendered scene. They were first proposed by Franklin C. Crow in 1977 as the geometry describing the 3D shape of the region occluded from a light source....
.

Real-time applications, such as computer games, which use modern graphics cards will normally implement per-pixel lighting algorithms using pixel shaders. Per-pixel lighting is also performed on the CPU in many high-end commercial rendering applications which typically do not render at interactive framerates.

See also

  • Phong shading
    Phong shading

    Phong shading refers to a set of techniques in 3D computer graphics. Phong shading includes a model for the reflection of light from surfaces and a compatible method of estimating pixel colors by interpolation surface normals across rasterized polygons....
  • Stencil shadow volumes
  • Unified lighting and shadowing
    Unified lighting and shadowing

    Unified shadow and lighting is the lighting model used in the Doom 3 game developed by id Software.Previous 3D games like Quake III Arena, used separate lighting models for determining how a light would illuminate a character or a map....