Hello GPU .002

[Matt]

I'm working on multiple scattering for my GPU-and-CPU volumetric renderer "VOLR". High order scattering is difficult, but I'm making progress

Divergent paths don't play nice with GPUs, and this is rendering too slowly at the moment. Also, if I were to put the sun behind us you'd see that it's not producing dark edges correctly, so I'm only showing back-lit clouds for now. This is because the phase functions are only approximated at the moment and there are other problems I need to solve to make this more realistic.

I will not stop until this is awesome!

[Luc]

Thanks for sharing these images, it's great that you are working full time on these GPU rendering aspects. 

[Dune]

Thanks for the update, Matt! This already looks terrific, and I'm sure you can accomplish what you're after.... and what we long for

[Hannes]

Really impressing!! Looking forward to the next steps.

[pokoy]

Great, this is already showing how much better lighting looks without caching.

Phase function - the downside of a realistic phase function is that scattering takes much longer to resolve. I've observed this with other path tracers (Corona renderer), volumes with values around 0.5-0.6 (forward scattering) will resolve much quicker than realistic values around 0.8-0.9. Visually, the higher values look much more realistic, especially when the sun is behind the camera. The tricky part is that the phase function changes across the cloud and to get realistic values/balance.

Since you mention backlit clouds looking wrong - would you still be willing to post it so we can have a peek even if it's not right yet?

Anyway, again great to see progress here and thanks for keeping us updated.

[schmeerlap]

I'm glad someone else has their head in the clouds, but in a good, constructive way. 

[zaxxon]

Those images are fantastic and give hope to the future at Planetside.  I also hope that your GPU/CPU development will  include other aspects of rendering in TG such as terrain, objects and foliage as well. Hope springs eternal...

[masonspappy]

Those images are fantastic and give hope to the future at Planetside.  I also hope that your GPU/CPU development will  include other aspects of rendering in TG such as terrain, objects and foliage as well. Hope springs eternal

Ditto!!!