My name is Benjamin Hathaway, a senior graphics programmer at Black Rock Studio. In the article presented I will explain a novel approach to the rendering of foliage (and other alpha-test renderings) which was developed for our 2008 title Pure.
The technique (Screen-Space Alpha Masking) is a cross-platform solution that enables the rendering of thousands (or millions) of apparently alpha-blended foliage polygons without the need for any prior depth sorting, using no more than two draw-calls and a full-screen post-process.
No paper, no link, etc?
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ReplyDeletewhat about further information about this topic? paper, link, demo?
ReplyDeletesounds really interesting... any further links or information on this?
ReplyDeleteI don't think the methods exposed here can be detailed in a blog post... For me, this blog is just a fast presentation of what the book will feature.
ReplyDeleteYou should be patient and buy this awesome GPUpro book once it is out! :) That's what I will do.
I'm not sure but I guess this technique was announced at siggraph 2009, and slides is available on bungie's publication page. (Bungie.net : Siggraph 2009)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bungie.net/images/Inside/publications/siggraph/BlackRockStudio/Siggraph2009_BlackRock.pptx
Is just a trick. "without the need for any prior depth sorting" i'm sure this words show that.
ReplyDeleteI read the presentation and I wonder how do they handle other transparent geometries rendering such as particle systems along with this technique.
ReplyDeleteAlpha particles and other such renderings 'just work' - as the technique writes Z for the alpha foliage surfaces (using Alpha-Testing), during the colour-pass. :) (Buy the book & all is revealed!)
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