looking at the twitter feed

[bobbystahr]

I see a pic with "A little path tracing experiment  " in the descriptor of the twitter feed...what's this path tracing?

[Oshyan]

Hopefully it's not too flippant to do... this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_tracing


This is probably the key take-away quote:
"Path tracing is a computer graphics ... method of rendering images of three-dimensional scenes such that the global illumination is faithful to reality." and "When combined with physically accurate models of surfaces, accurate models of real light sources (light bulbs), and optically-correct cameras, path tracing can produce still images that are indistinguishable from photographs."

So basically it's a different (and better, in most respects) approach to rendering than what TG uses now. Path Tracing is becoming the industry standard for rendering software.

- Oshyan

[bobbystahr]

Hopefully it's not too flippant to do... this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_tracing


This is probably the key take-away quote:
"Path tracing is a computer graphics ... method of rendering images of three-dimensional scenes such that the global illumination is faithful to reality." and "When combined with physically accurate models of surfaces, accurate models of real light sources (light bulbs), and optically-correct cameras, path tracing can produce still images that are indistinguishable from photographs."

So basically it's a different (and better, in most respects) approach to rendering than what TG uses now. Path Tracing is becoming the industry standard for rendering software.

- Oshyan

Not at all, thanks for the link and the summary. So is TG thinking along these lines?

[bobbystahr]

An extended version of the algorithm is realized by volumetric path tracing, which considers the light scattering (the intriguing part) of a scene.

Due to its accuracy and unbiased nature, path tracing is used to generate reference images when testing the quality of other rendering algorithms. In order to get high quality images from path tracing, a large number of rays must be traced to avoid visible noisy artifacts.

this is intriguing and scary (in italics) all at once

[Oshyan]

No comment

- Oshyan

[bobbystahr]

No comment

- Oshyan

thanks 

[AP]

That is a very nice looking experiment, I have to say. Can Matt state any stats on rendering time, etc... on that scene? Not much noise present there.

[Oshyan]

It's way too early to quote render times. Don't hold your breath, but it's nice to see things evolving.

- Oshyan

[AP]

Not a problem. It is very nice and that in and of itself is enough.

[bobbystahr]

Sorry for stirring the pot Oshyan...

[ejgodwin]

An extended version of the algorithm is realized by volumetric path tracing, which considers the light scattering (the intriguing part) of a scene.

Due to its accuracy and unbiased nature, path tracing is used to generate reference images when testing the quality of other rendering algorithms. In order to get high quality images from path tracing, a large number of rays must be traced to avoid visible noisy artifacts.

this is intriguing and scary (in italics) all at once

As a frequent user of Blender, I can attest to this. Takes some sleight-of-hand to avoid that noisy render, including (sometimes) a blur filter node added to the render output. It's doable, though, with the right hardware.

[digitalguru]

In order to get high quality images from path tracing, a large number of rays must be traced to avoid visible noisy artifacts.

Seems like a developing trend is to employ some sophisticated post processing filtering (not blurring) to the image after rendering so less rays need to be fired into the scene enabling quicker render times. Renderman does this (very well!) and a standalone prog called Atlus works with a lot of renderers.

[Matt]

Seems like a developing trend is to employ some sophisticated post processing filtering (not blurring) to the image after rendering so less rays need to be fired into the scene enabling quicker render times. Renderman does this (very well!) and a standalone prog called Atlus works with a lot of renderers.

You can bet that I'll try to do something similar.

Matt

[AP]

Progressive Monte Carlo Rendering to reduce noise? Metropolis light transport? So are we thinking possibilities using BRDF and BSDF?

[Oshyan]

You might also be interested to know that our holiday sale image was rendered using the in-development path tracer. The "snow" is clouds...
https://twitter.com/terragen/status/806625957058445312

- Oshyan