49abd9f5$1@news.povray.org...
> Gilles Tran wrote:
>
>> Of course what they did in Crysis in much more complex, but I don't think 
>> that they do GI in real time (though such stuff exists).
>
> According to Wikipedia, Crysis simulates GI in realtime using "ambient 
> occlusion", with no precomputed lightmaps.
>
> (This is, however, not as accurate as a real GI pass.)

Thanks Andrew for the correction ("I don't think that.." = "I didn't bother 
to do some minimal research but I'll write about it anyway...", grmphhh).
I see that there are some nice videos demonstrating the effect in real time.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2592720445119800709&hl=en
It's true that an AO pass can be good enough in many situations, and games 
are one of them. In product and architectural visualisation, AO is good for 
the preliminary renderings but cannot replace GI for the final pics (though 
a little AO can help with render times and overall realism). It's fast, so 
people tend to overuse it and in the end it becomes annoying to see dirt in 
every corner...
The real time subsurface scattering in Crysis is very impressive (from what 
I see from stills and demos), I'm wondering whether it's only for flat 
objects like leaves or if it works on actual volumes too.
I wish I had the time to play games, if only for the eye candy :(

G.

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