http://www.neutrone.net/blog fully multi-threaded next generation 3D engine Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:04:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The technology demo for NeutronE is done so here it is! Comments are more than welcome, the installer will be available for download as soon as our new website is up and running ... http://www.neutrone.net/blog/?p=394 I already mentioned in one of the earlier posts that Neutron engine will have a real-time global illumination solution so here it is! The algorithm is based on 'surfels' - point lights with area and it requires DirectX 10/11 features to run (geometry shader and stream out). The following video ... http://www.neutrone.net/blog/?p=386 Some people (myself included) did not know that it's possible to use DirectX 11 on DirectX 10 hardware. Looks like Microsoft finally got something right :) Anyway, after making this discovery it was quite tempting to test those new features so here we are - Neutron engine now runs on ... http://www.neutrone.net/blog/?p=382 While ago the first global illumination solution was added to the Neutron engine. The new improved GI now supports instanced geometry so it can be used outdoors as well. It's based on radiosity volume which holds spherical harmonics coefficients and radiance captured from various directions. This approach is quite accurate ... http://www.neutrone.net/blog/?p=374 I forgot to mention that we have a new logo for the engine. Here it is, comments are welcome :) http://www.neutrone.net/blog/?p=367 After a while we are back with some exciting news. NVidia's PhysX is fully integrated in Neutron engine with all it's features! The following video shows some of those features in action (static/dynamic bodies, tearable cloth, soft bodies and joints). All other features (wheels, ragdolls etc) can be easily integrated ... http://www.neutrone.net/blog/?p=358 Storms look cool, so why not add one to the engine :) Lightning and thunder generation is a part of dynamic weather system and it can be controlled like any other environment parameter over 24h cycle. The following video shows one possible scenario where storm forms after slightly overcast morning. ... http://www.neutrone.net/blog/?p=353 After adding 'time of the day' feature next logical step was to add some weather effects. Dynamic cloud generator works with 'humidity' factor to decide on how cloudy the sky gets. The same factor can be used to determine when rain starts/stop falling so the weather changes dynamically.  Rain is ... http://www.neutrone.net/blog/?p=343 Dynamic control of all environment properties in 3D engine is very important. Let's face it, without it the 3D scene just does not look real. So, the logical step was to improve Neutron engine further and add this feature. All parameters related to wind,clouds,water, sky, fog,sun,moon,starts etc can be tweaked ... http://www.neutrone.net/blog/?p=331 Neutron engine supports shadow casting by translucent objects (clouds, smoke, fire etc) but there was no support for seamless blending of solid and translucent shadows. Since the engine renders shadows using the 'deferred shadows' approach it was very easy to implement this feature. Results can be seen in this video ... http://www.neutrone.net/blog/?p=325