Ray-tracing for auto exposure
AssigneeNVIDIA Corporation
InventorsJakub Boksansky, Oliver Mark Wright
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In various examples, a virtual light meter may be implemented along with ray tracing techniques in order to determine incident light values—e.g., incoming irradiance, incident radiance, etc.—for adjusting auto exposure values of rendered frames. For example, one or more rays may be used to sample incident light over a sampling pattern—such as a hemispherical sampling pattern—for any position in a virtual game environment. As a result, the incident light values may be sampled near a subject of interest in a scene or frame such that exposure values are consistent or stable regardless of the composition of the rendered frames.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- casting one or more first rays from a virtual camera into a virtual environment;
- determining, based at least in part on one or more intersections of the one or more first rays, one or more subjects in the virtual environment;
- instantiating one or more virtual light meters at one or more locations in the virtual environment corresponding to the one or more subjects;
- sampling incident light at the one or more locations of the one or more virtual light meters based at least in part on casting one or more second rays from the one or more locations of the one or more virtual light meters using one or more ray tracing algorithms;
- determining, based at least in part on the incident light, an exposure value;
- and
- rendering a frame representative of the virtual environment based at least in part on the exposure value.
A system comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- one or more memory devices storing instruction thereon that, when executed using the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to execute operations comprising:
- casting one or more rays from a virtual camera into a virtual environment;
- determining, based at least in part on one or more intersections of the one or more rays, one or more subjects in a virtual environment;
- instantiating one or more virtual light meters at one or more locations in the virtual environment corresponding to the one or more subjects;
- sampling incoming irradiance at the one or more locations of the one or more virtual light meters based at least in part on executing a ray-tracing algorithm at the one or more locations;
- determining, based at least in part on the incoming irradiance at the one or more locations, an exposure value;
- and
- rendering, based at least in part on the exposure value, a frame representative of the virtual environment from a perspective of the virtual camera.
A processor comprising:
- processing circuitry to:
- cast one or more rays from a virtual camera into a virtual environment;
- determine, based at least in part on one or more intersections of the one or more rays, one or more subjects in a virtual environment;
- instantiate one or more virtual light meters at one or more locations in the virtual environment corresponding to the one or more subjects;
- sample incoming irradiance at the one or more locations of the one or more virtual light meters based at least in part on executing a ray-tracing algorithm at the one or more locations;
- determine, based at least in part on the incoming irradiance at the one or more locations, an exposure value;
- and
- render, based at least in part on the exposure value, a frame representative of the virtual environment from a perspective of the virtual camera.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.