https://youtu.be/kEExb-zLv98

Experiment 410: Tweaking shader params (metallic/smoothness) for non-glossy surfaces looked nice so I played around a bit. Once surface smoothness drops under 0.9 it's no longer used in DXR #realtimeraytracing pass and falls back to normal #Unity #HDRP, so perf improves on my laptop.

https://youtu.be/cYWec7jwm_8

Experiment 409: Animating 96,000 instanced indirect meshes via compute shader, with 1-bounce DXR #realtimeraytracing and DLSS.

https://youtu.be/tJnCk1OdI7w

Experiment 408: Testing the DxrLattice instanced indirect render/raytrace optimisations on big screen at work. Quadro A6000 (Ampere gen) copes a lot better than my laptop 3070 :-)

https://youtu.be/iAAwGJ2dX0w

Experiment 407: Wanted to get Keijiro's DxrLattice test to "megastructure" scale by switching from prefab gameobjects per tile to instanced indirect render. Went from around 3,000 non-instanced gameobject meshes @ 4 fps to 240,000 instanced meshes @ 20 fps (even with per-instance material values, and 1-bounce DXR raytracing)!

https://youtu.be/nrMJ6VCjXm0

Experiment 406: Well, opposite of a turntable I guess, as I'm turning camera around the scene instead. Rendered out on laptop 3070, so you can see the realtime framerate isn't having a great time with the recursive render objects so large on screen.
Just love Keijiro's Puppet dancing goons: https://github.com/keijiro/PuppetTest
#RealtimeVfx #CreativeCoding #raytracing

In this tutorial series from SIGGRAPH, we enhance a Vulkan renderer with ray tracing features to implement real-time pixel-perfect shadows (with and without transparency) and a bonus reflection effect. You will work with provided scaffolded code (based on the Vulkan Tutorial) and fill in key shader functions following step-by-step instructions.

https://docs.vulkan.org/tutorial/latest/courses/18_Ray_tracing/00_Overview.html
#tutorial #raytracing #vulkan #shadows #reflection

https://youtu.be/Uec2rGSo6u4

Experiment 405: Another #Unity #HDRP #realtimeraytracing perf test - added 25x Keijiro's Puppet dancing goons with recursive render to test out how it looks with multiple objects and 4 bounces. 4 seemed enough to get nice entry/exit for meshes and then enough detail for objects behind that it sells the "crystal" look. Perf suffers badly the more of the screen is dominated by refractive objects, as there's more ray trace workload.
#RealtimeVfx #CreativeCoding #raytracing

https://youtu.be/jE_fHBW_qys

Experiment 404: Quick perf test of #Unity #HDRP #realtimeraytracing recursive render. Quadro A6000 GPU (Ampere generation) hitting solid 60fps with DLSS on, but dropping under without it.
#RealtimeVfx #CreativeCoding #raytracing

https://youtu.be/yjlZp9Lh2qc

Experiment 403: More #Unity #HDRP #realtimeraytracing tests - recursive render with 4 layers and side walls set to mirror shine can start to recreate the "infinite room" look.
Disabled reflection probe fallback as the box-projection cubemap looks okay for general reflections, but when directly next to ray-accurate reflections becomes obviously incorrect. Probably need to add temporal fallback to extend it further.
#RealtimeVfx #CreativeCoding #raytracing

Autodesk VRED 2026 has introduced new Vulkan renderer alongside the traditional OpenGL real-time pipeline, addressing fundamental limitations while introducing hybrid ray tracing capabilities that significantly enhance visual quality in real-time scenarios on workstations.

Case study: https://www.khronos.org/blog/autodesk-vred-2026-how-autodesk-revolutionized-visualization-with-vulkan
#automotive #Vulkan #api #VRED #CAD #raytracing

https://youtu.be/Lu3tln1Xzzk

Experiment 402: More #Unity #HDRP #realtimeraytracing tests - the recursive render material option gives a lovely transparent look with proper depth transmission colour and entry/exit refraction.
Using Recorder to export video at capped 60fps, but Graphy FPS top right shows realtime perf on laptop 3070 GPU. Must have not set the material up properly for screenspace refraction. Some parts of vid show tweaking material IOR value.
#RealtimeVfx #CreativeCoding #raytracing

https://youtu.be/wvLDqp8RF4M
Experiment 401: Playing around with Keijiro's DxrLattice #Unity #realtimeraytracing test project at work: https://github.com/keijiro/DxrLattice
On Quadro A6000 (Ampere gen) with DLSS on, HDRP is solid 60 fps with 1 bounce ray tracing into the scene. Depending on extra geo (light bars and vfxgraph particles) it dips under 60 when using 2 bounce RT. Also limited in number and output format for vfxgraph support in RT.
#RealtimeVfx #vfxgraph #CreativeCoding #raytracing

Yeah ok so my experiment was successful, and my toy raytracer now runs on JIT-compiled "shaders" lmao

Added a "sky light" to my raytracer. Basically acts like one big hemispherical area light, with an arbitrary color and orientation.

Initially wasn't gonna bother with any kind of soft shadows at all, but there's certain kinds of scenes that are totally impossible without it (like overcast lighting) so I'm caving in this area.

(not like it'd be totally out of the question for the 90s. Quake 2 had radiosity in its lightmapper, and that came out in 1997)