Nvidia launches several new GameWorks libraries

Volumetric Lighting

GW slide 09

The first tech is volumetric lighting, first seen in Fallout 4 under the "God Rays" setting. The technique uses hardware tessellation to add atmospheric lighting to the environment. It's easiest to show a few slides that demonstrate how volumetric lighting works:

GW slide 10

GW slide 11

GW slide 12

GW slide 13

Starting with the base rendered scene, using a directional light with shadow mapping, light volumes are computed by extruding geometry, which gives the third image showing the scattered lighting. This is combined with the original shadow mapped image to create a final product, which looks far better (IMO), but the performance hit can be rather severe.

Nvidia noted a 5% drop in performance for Fallout 4 by turning on God Rays at the low setting, with a far more substantial 40% drop in performance when using the ultra setting. That might sound horrible, but when you compare Nvidia's off vs. low and the ultra vs. low, you can see that nearly all of the gains can be had using the low setting. One thing to note here is that the above scenes are a great use case for volumetric lighting, but there are many situations where volumetric lighting wouldn't show nearly as noticeable a change.

TOPICS
Jarred Walton

Jarred's love of computers dates back to the dark ages when his dad brought home a DOS 2.3 PC and he left his C-64 behind. He eventually built his first custom PC in 1990 with a 286 12MHz, only to discover it was already woefully outdated when Wing Commander was released a few months later. He holds a BS in Computer Science from Brigham Young University and has been working as a tech journalist since 2004, writing for AnandTech, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. From the first S3 Virge '3D decelerators' to today's GPUs, Jarred keeps up with all the latest graphics trends and is the one to ask about game performance. 

Latest in Software
Still image of Bastion holding a bird, taken from Microsoft's Copilot for Gaming reveal trailer
Microsoft unveils Copilot for Gaming, an AI-powered 'ultimate gaming sidekick' that will let you talk to your console so you don't have to talk to your friends
BURBANK, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 15: Protestors attend the SAG-AFTRA Video Game Strike Picket on August 15, 2024 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Lila Seeley/Getty Images)
8 months into their strike, videogame voice actors say the industry's latest proposal is 'filled with alarming loopholes that will leave our members vulnerable to AI abuse'
live action Jimbo the Jester from Balatro holding a playing card and addressing the camera
LocalThunk forbids AI-generated art on the Balatro subreddit: 'I think it does real harm to artists of all kinds'
Promotional image of the HP Envy Inspire inkjet printer
Haunted printers turning on by themselves and printing nonsense has to be one of my favorite Windows 11 bugs ever
Microsoft Windows 11
The latest Windows 11 dev build gives you the ability to snap together commonly paired apps for access in a single click, and I'm already sold
Aloy
'Creepy,' 'ghastly,' 'rancid': Viewers react to leaked video of Sony's AI-powered Aloy
Latest in Features
Rainbow Six Siege year 9 season 2 key art - two Rainbow Six Siege operators facing each other
'Siege 2 was never on the table': Rainbow Six Siege X director explains why the 10-year-old FPS doesn't need a sequel
Gallica and the protagonist from Metaphor: ReFantazio.
The best deals in the 2025 Steam Spring Sale
Hands pushing poker chips on a table
Winning $2.6 billion in this poker videogame has completely ruined fake poker for me
Fragpunk characters with weapon drawn
The latest big game on Steam is Fragpunk, or as I like to call it, 'kitchen-sink Counter-Strike'
Screenshots from Half-Life 2 RTX, showing the various new effects delivered by full ray tracing and enhanced assets.
I just played Half-Life 2 RTX, a fully ray-traced overhaul of the original, and its meaty headcrabs have me hankering for more
A hunter poses with a large hammer as their palico cheers nearby in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Monster Hunter Wilds weapon tier list