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{{short description|Computer graphics shading and rendering technique}}(File:AmbientOcclusion German.jpg|thumb|The ambient occlusion map (middle image) for this scene darkens only the innermost angles of corners.)In 3D computer graphics, modeling, and animation, ambient occlusion is a shading and rendering technique used to calculate how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting. For example, the interior of a tube is typically more occluded (and hence darker) than the exposed outer surfaces, and becomes darker the deeper inside the tube one goes.Ambient occlusion can be seen as an accessibility value that is calculated for each surface point.BOOK, Miller, Gavin, Efficient algorithms for local and global accessibility shading, Proceedings of the 21st annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, 1994, 319–326, In scenes with open sky, this is done by estimating the amount of visible sky for each point, while in indoor environments, only objects within a certain radius are taken into account and the walls are assumed to be the origin of the ambient light. The result is a diffuse, non-directional shading effect that casts no clear shadows, but that darkens enclosed and sheltered areas and can affect the rendered image’s overall tone. It is often used as a post-processing effect.Unlike local methods such as Phong shading, ambient occlusion is a global method, meaning that the illumination at each point is a function of other geometry in the scene. However, it is a very crude approximation to full global illumination. The appearance achieved by ambient occlusion alone is similar to the way an object might appear on an overcast day.The first method that allowed simulating ambient occlusion in real time was developed by the research and development department of Crytek (CryEngine 2).WEB,vr.arvilab.com/blog/ambient-occlusion, AMBIENT OCCLUSION: AN EXTENSIVE GUIDE ON ITS ALGORITHMS AND USE IN VR, ARVIlab, 2018-11-26, With the release of hardware capable of real time ray tracing (GeForce 20 series) by Nvidia in 2018, ray traced ambient occlusion (RTAO) became possible in games and other real time applications.AV MEDIA,www.youtube.com/watch?v=yag6e2Npw4M,ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/yag6e2Npw4M, 2021-12-12, live, Nvidia, Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion, {{cbignore}} This feature was added to the Unreal Engine with version 4.22.NEWS,www.extremetech.com/computing/285701-unreal-engine-adds-support-for-dx12-raytracing, Unreal Engine Adds Support for DX12 Raytracing, ExtremeTech,

Implementation

(File:Efecto de la oclusión ambiental.ogg|thumbnail|3D animation of ambient occlusion enabled on the animation to the right)In the absence of hardware-assisted ray traced ambient occlusion, real-time applications such as computer games can use screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) or horizon-based ambient occlusion (HBAO) as a faster approximation of true ambient occlusion, using per-pixel depth, rather than scene geometry, to form an ambient occlusion map.Ambient occlusion is related to accessibility shading, which determines appearance based on how easy it is for a surface to be touched by various elements (e.g., dirt, light, etc.). It has been popularized in production animation due to its relative simplicity and efficiency.The ambient occlusion shading model offers a better perception of the 3D shape of the displayed objects. This was shown in a paper where the authors report the results of perceptual experiments showing that depth discrimination under diffuse uniform sky lighting is superior to that predicted by a direct lighting model.JOURNAL, 10.1068/p3060, Depth discrimination from shading under diffuse lighting, M.S., Langer, H. H. Buelthoff, Perception, 29, 6, 649–660, 2000, 11040949, 10.1.1.69.6103, 11700764, The occlusion A_bar p at a point bar p on a surface with normal hat n can be computed by integrating the visibility function over the hemisphere Omega with respect to projected solid angle:{{center|A_bar p = frac{1}{pi} int_{Omega} V_{bar p,hatomega} (hat n cdot hatomega ) , operatorname{d}omega}}where V_{bar p,hatomega} is the visibility function at bar p, defined to be zero if bar p is occluded in the direction hatomega and one otherwise, and operatorname{d}omega is the infinitesimal solid angle step of the integration variable hatomega. A variety of techniques are used to approximate this integral in practice: perhaps the most straightforward way is to use the Monte Carlo method by casting rays from the point bar p and testing for intersection with other scene geometry (i.e., ray casting). Another approach (more suited to hardware acceleration) is to render the view from bar p by rasterizing black geometry against a white background and taking the (cosine-weighted) average of rasterized fragments. This approach is an example of a “gathering” or “inside-out” approach, whereas other algorithms (such as depth-map ambient occlusion) employ “scattering” or “outside-in” techniques.In addition to the ambient occlusion value, a “bent normal” vector hat{n}_b is often generated, which points in the average direction of occluded samples. The bent normal can be used to look up incident radiance from an environment map to approximate image-based lighting. However, there are some situations in which the direction of the bent normal is a misrepresentation of the dominant direction of illumination, e.g., In this example, light may reach the point p only from the left or right sides, but the bent normal points to the average of those two sources, which is directly toward the obstruction.

Variants

• Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO)
• Screen space directional occlusion (SSDO)
• Ray-traced ambient occlusion (RTAO)
• High Definition Ambient Occlusion (HDAO)
• Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion+ (HBAO)
• Alchemy Ambient Occlusion (AAO)
• Angle Based Ambient Occlusion (ABAO)
• Pre Baked Ambient Occlusion (PBAO)
• Voxel Accelerated Ambient Occlusion (VXAO)
• Ground Truth based Ambient Occlusion (GTAO)WEB, Practical Realtime Strategies for Accurate Indirect Occlusion,iryoku.com/downloads/Practical-Realtime-Strategies-for-Accurate-Indirect-Occlusion.pdf,

Recognition

In 2010, Hayden Landis, Ken McGaugh and Hilmar Koch were awarded a Scientific and Technical Academy Award for their work on ambient occlusion rendering.Oscar 2010: Scientific and Technical Awards, Alt Film Guide, Jan 7, 2010

See also

• Global illumination
• Photon mapping
• Radiosity
• Ray tracing
• High-dynamic-range rendering

References

{{Texture mapping techniques}}