Lighting and Shading

Lighting is used to create the illusion of light and shadow, which helps to define the shape, form, and texture of objects in a scene.

Phong shading is a popular lighting model used in real-time rendering due to its balance between computational efficiency and visual quality.

Diffuse reflection scatters light in all directions, while specular reflection reflects light in a specific direction. Diffuse reflection is caused by surface roughness, while specular reflection is caused by surface smoothness. Diffuse reflection is independent of the angle of incidence, while specular reflection is dependent on the angle of incidence.

Ambient lighting provides a uniform level of illumination to all objects in a scene, regardless of their position or orientation. This helps to reduce the appearance of harsh shadows and create a more realistic overall lighting effect.

Subsurface scattering is a shading technique used to simulate the effect of light scattering within a translucent material, such as skin or marble. This technique helps to create a more realistic appearance by allowing light to penetrate the surface and scatter within the material.

Forward rendering processes pixels in the order they appear on the screen, while deferred rendering processes pixels in the order they are stored in memory. Forward rendering stores information about each pixel in the scene, while deferred rendering stores information about each light source in the scene. Forward rendering is more efficient for scenes with a large number of lights, while deferred rendering is more efficient for scenes with a large number of objects.

Shadow mapping is a technique used to generate shadows from point light sources, directional light sources, and spot light sources. It works by projecting the scene onto a texture map, which is then used to determine which parts of the scene are in shadow.

Global illumination is a shading technique used to simulate the effect of light bouncing off multiple surfaces in a scene. This technique helps to create more realistic lighting effects by taking into account the interaction of light with the environment.

Normal mapping is a technique used to add detail to the surface of an object without increasing the number of polygons. This is done by storing the surface normals in a texture map, which is then used to calculate the shading of the object.

Cook-Torrance shading is a shading technique used to simulate the effect of light reflecting off a rough surface. This technique takes into account the distribution of surface normals and the roughness of the surface to create more realistic lighting effects.

Environment mapping is a technique used to create the illusion of a reflective surface. This is done by storing the environment map in a texture map, which is then used to calculate the reflection of the environment on the surface of the object.

Refraction is a shading technique used to simulate the effect of light passing through a transparent material. This technique takes into account the index of refraction of the material and the angle of incidence of the light to create realistic refraction effects.

Light probes are used to store information about the lighting in a scene. This information can then be used to illuminate objects in the scene, even if they are not directly lit by a light source.

Volume scattering is a shading technique used to simulate the effect of light scattering within a participating medium, such as fog or smoke. This technique takes into account the density and scattering properties of the medium to create realistic scattering effects.

Irradiance caching is a technique used to store information about the lighting in a scene. This information can then be used to illuminate objects in the scene, even if they are not directly lit by a light source.