HDR concepts (FBX)

Depth of Field + HDR Rendering (Technique B)

The DOF + HDR Technique B contains the following effects:

• Depth of Field

• High Dynamic Range with floating point buffers

• Fog techniques

• Projected Shadows Maps

• Cascaded Shadows Maps

This technique is optimized to simultaneously render DOF HDR and Fog.

You can decide to use only some of these effects, which makes rendering faster than when all the effects are active. However, this is slower than a technique optimized only for one or the other.

Note: Do not use the HDR in a scene where, on screen, there are gaps where nothing is drawn. All the black pixels affect the calculation of the brightness of the scene and then unpick the contrasts between the colors.

Activating this method

This rendering technique is activated via the graphical configuration file, usually config.xml, section $ dof_hdr_b.

The parameters of this technique are found in the dof_hdr_b.cfg file, which is created the first time the executable is launched with this technique enabled.

When activated in the configuration file, the HDR part and the Fog are always active, while the DOF part is active only when the camera used has enabled the Multi-Pass Effect Enable checkbox in 3DSMax. The type of effect is Depth of Field.

A debug panel is available for tuning parameters.

Pressing the Save button saves the parameters in the dof_hdr_b.cfg file. The enable / disable values are not saved, and the DOF values of FocalDist and FocalDepth are not saved because they are integrated in the camera.

Limitations

Limitations of this technique:

• Transparent objects are blended to other objects in the scene. The values of DOF, HDR and Fog are also blended with each other, which can lead to more or less visible visual defects. This includes blending objects with very different focus distances.

Conclusion

To use this effect:

• Activate it in configuration file.

• Activate the parameter in the 3DSMax camera (only for DOF).

• If you want HDR, assign it to the shaders of the objects in 3DSMax the fEmissiveMul.