Ambient Occlusion as Fast As Possible

Ambient occlusion. that setting is in so many of your games, but did you even know what it does??
ADATA Sponsor Message: The SP910 SSD from ADATA delivers performance, affordability, and reliability. Click here to check it out: linustechtips.com/main/topic/1...

[@kraftderwahl2405]

Watching this in 2020, and Ray Tracing is a beautiful thing.

[@cristianc.6860]

7 years ago, real time ray tracing and dlss in gaming were unimaginable.

[@raulpablo8425]

Ambient occlusion is crap in 99% of all games

[@DashMatin]

sure is

[@kraftderwahl2405]

@@raulpablo8425 too bad you didn't got to school to work on it so you could make better tech for it

[@raulpablo8425]

@@kraftderwahl2405 blablabla

[@NotCerius]

Hey Linus, I'm from the future, and Ray Tracing is a thing now. Best Wishes, Guy from 2019

[@snurffff]

*Realtime ray tracing

[@ExtremeCrashCam]

He said at an acceptable frame rate, we're not there yet bud.

[@noahvgco-leader7914]

It will be next year thanks to ps5

[@yourcommentmightnotworksop9987]

Hi im from further future where direct x supports ray tracing without heavy GPU Usage.

[@ommahajan1]

@@yourcommentmightnotworksop9987 Hi I am from even further future DirectX 12 Ultimate is now launched where it has a better support of realtime ray tracing also DLSS 2.0 is now launched.

[@alexzhukovsky8361]

8 years later and we now have, prior impossible, true ambient occlusion (also known as ray tracing) in video games

[@portman8909]

Far too taxing to replace ambient occlusion for now.

[@JTCPingas]

4:35 my right ear was being violated by a low rumble

[@jasonboyd22]

Sounds like my girlfriend.

[@Taziod]

Maybe my headphones suck ATH M50s - But I hear nothing. Could be my ears...

[@KalderRoel]

oh thank god I wasnt alone

[@JTCPingas]

Taziod Oh trust me. If you have headphones with decent to good bass, you'll hear it.

[@halsoy]

JTCPingas aye. Sony MDR-1RBT's here. confirming the rumble. Kinda loud actually.

[@RechargingBatteries]

Will TechQuickie be made in 60fps when available, I think it would help reduce the green blur when Linus moves quickly.

[@RechargingBatteries]

Damn, would of thought that there wouldn't be any blur considering their production values & equipment cost

[@Improbablyjordan]

But teh hooman eeye onle sea in 30fpeess

[@Your_Degenerate]

jprivatesnowball11 Good thing I'm a human and not a hooman, man they have it pretty rough.

[@sailor7388]

Oh wow you predicted it!

[@Cosplayinghuman]

@@SaviorTheBurn LMAO

[@escape093]

"But is still a far cry from true ambient occlusion." *ba-dum tiss*

[@Noine14159145]

Disorderly 2 we finally have true global illumination

[@LorelynF]

Short and concise. :) Looking forward to see more.

[@Liberteen666]

Most charming reviewer on youtube.

[@dave6222]

ate

[@myeyesaredrymylove]

THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!

[@fenyx2558]

Dead channel

[@vernandocalvin4373]

@@fenyx2558 how about yourself?

[@perfectly_unstable]

2021 here, "uber" computers are a thing and damn is it beautiful.

[@samy7342]

IKR?!

[@TheActualVimple]

"A far cry for ambient occlusion" What's with the terrible puns :P

[@NervaTraian11]

Its not a pun, "far cry" is an expression which means not even close.

[@TheActualVimple]

Radu Gandea Well yeah. That's what makes it a pun...

[@NervaTraian11]

If its not intentional its not a pun, :P

[@Cheesepuff]

Radu Gandea Accidental punning is a serious condition that plagues thousands of people each year.

[@HKeeperfim]

Well, Far Cry 3 did have terrible ambient occlusion (on console).

[@BSGaming]

Ambient occlusion is one of the most amazing things in 3D.

[@aladdin8623]

Actually ambient occlusion is fake global illumination with many caveats and shortcomings. Additionally, when ambient occlusion has been overdone, objects get an ugly dirty look.

[@JACK-kp8tb]

@@aladdin8623 that comment was 7 years ago dude. back then it was god like for 3d animating.

[@aladdin8623]

@@JACK-kp8tb People might still believe, there was no update or progress since back then. And in fact it is still being used in games unfortunately. So... please understand, that i really i don't give a s... about your opinion 'Dude'.

[@JACK-kp8tb]

@@aladdin8623 you care a lot that's why you felt the need to reply to a comment from 7 years ago and cuss me out. go outside and get a life.

[@aladdin8623]

@@JACK-kp8tb okay maybe i overreacted a bit. But sometimes i really got fed up with some people being a smart a.. on social media. And i really don't know, why those people insist on being always more clever than others, while there are not. I mean what is the problem with those people's ego. Against common belief it is actually a sign of intelligence to not have the last word over everything instead of babbling all over something.

[@MrHav1k]

Now THIS was a helpful techquickie! Thanks Linus!

[@RedPillAlways]

2022. LTT has taught us all ALOT. To think we talked about this stuff like a myth wondering if it would ever happen and now here we are PCS easily do it consoles finally do it and it just keeps getting better

[@Calvinatorzcraft]

Something interesting: the source engine calculates all lighting of static objects beforehand and therefore only has to worry about lighting dynamic objects in real time

[@IonBasa]

That low hum in the audio near the end of the video.

[@MrCelcifer]

Thnx Linus! your videos are always helpful c:

[@Dobby2719]

These are so helpful! Thanks Linus!

[@zig8925]

Ssao is still very nice, and makes the scene look a lot more realistic, these couple of years later

[@Yaboiicey]

Techquickie I'm a graphics programmer and I really liked this video Linus you did a great job! Everything said was true :D I just made some new ambient occlusion. I call it Natural Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion.

[@daniellucas6325]

please tell more.

[@Yaboiicey]

***** I have a picture, but minor correction, its Natural Horizon Based Directional Occlusion. It takes ideas from Crytek's SSAO, NVIDIA's HBAO+, and the SSDO Linus mentioned. It considers the sky as an incoming light source, and occludes only ambient light. Here is an image comparison with HBAO on the right and NHBDO on the left: i.imgur.com/Gvg0pHz.png

[@nextlifeonearth]

Yaboiicey I was planning to make an immersion galleries for games one day and these shaders are one of the things I was thinking about. You're doing a great job, I've been watching some of your videos and it looks great, keep up the good work :D. An FPS counter would help to see what impact the shaders have in performance, just a tip.

[@fsk648]

Yaboiicey Looks good, but would only work well in open games. I don't think it would look natural if you're indoors.

[@CryBite]

Looks good :) Good idea

[@CalebAstle]

I wish that Techquickie videos had an endless supply of new videos... I need them

[@marianomdq86]

Linus you're the man! You're everywhere when you are most needed! I think that your explanations are the best out there because there are accurate, well-explained and non-biased towards any sponsor, and that makes your sponsors ads a lot more acceptable for me. Great job man! If you came by Mar del Plata I'll buy you a beer!

[@derekbrown5123]

And I like how upfront he is with all his ads and sponsors. He dedicates 25% of his vids to ads and I don't mind it. Guys making no a living doing this stuff and essentially giving information away for free. If my paying the information comes from listening to dollar shave club then so be it.

[@Caderynwolf]

+Derek Brown plus most of the ads are relevant to the video most of the time (except dollar shave club, but it's an interesting product/service), so I already have an interest in hearing about this product and will actually give it a look most of the time, what I hate are when channels just plug ads that have nothing to do with the video I clicked on, ie; if I click on an add about nintendo, what point is there is trying to tell me about the latest doormat

[@ScottBeebiWan]

4:57 Was that just me or did it just blink?

[@kopl]

scary shit right there

[@user-te9vx8bx8y]

thats youtube new immersive update

[@ScottBeebiWan]

***** WTF?

[@loadiine]

Is it just my computer or it just doesn't play any sound at 0.25 speed?

[@ScottBeebiWan]

ILikeTrainsKid It has to do with your browser, codecs, Media Player plugins, etc. But I think he meant 0.5 (1/2) speed anyway.

[@DanielVidz]

Never mind the low frequency hum. whats with the screen flashing black starting from 4:48 it only affects the green screen also his hands look weird throughout the whole video..

[@meowingmono]

I see it too

[@grmmhp]

subliminal messages forcing you to buy the ssds and love satan. it only flashes for a thousandth of a second tho

[@DanielVidz]

+grmmhp HAHAHAHA!!

[@NiceNiels]

i was waiting for this as Fast As Possible for a while now, awsome!

[@AceyMcSpade]

Thanks for the explanation really good to know

[@pjtruslow]

that explains why crysis was so difficult to run. my 9800 GT barely ran it.

[@rich1051414]

One issue with true dynamic ambient occlusion is the amount and shade of the shadow cast on an object in real life can be influenced by the ambient occlusion of another object. So if a reddish shadow is cast on a white wall, that white wall would should then also be casting a shadow with a bit of red tint. The issue with this is knowing what object and what light source to start with, without being required to do pass after pass to get an accurate result. This is why ray tracing is really the only sane solution.

[@DavePoo]

0:59 - In this part, when Linus says "Ambient Lighting", he means "Ambient Occlusion" - the two are not the same thing. Unfortunately, this video explains "Ambient Occlusion" without first defining what "Ambient Lighting" is in computer graphics context.

[@MOTOSNOWRIDER]

awesome video guys, very interesting stuff right there!

[@hirushaadi]

3:37 HEY! i'm from the future and you have real time ray tracing in 2020.

[@Laittth]

Well the first RTX cards released 2 years ago

[@dtheek2377]

2020 Q4 : 8k gaming with Ray tracing is possible.

[@Laittth]

"Possible"

[@QCAlpha-212]

Am i the only one who notice that this is the first video in this channel that you can watch in 4K?? Blew my mind that that was a actual option, Thumbs up!

[@RJ_____________]

pretty good explanation. keep the good work

[@ZealotDKD]

if you render at a higher resolution, apply ssao, and then downsample back to your screen resolution ssao will be appropriately blurred.

[@MultiTelan]

You had some flickering at the end of the video. Intentional?

[@fhm4]

I love Linus's ad integrations.

[@maddog5236]

Thanks for the 4k option!

[@archivedfrytoastfrill9675]

“Ray tracing is super taxing on hardware” Oh boy Linus is in for one hell of a surprise isn’t he

[@nickpinkowski]

It still is, although possible for some techniques at 1 sample with denoising now.

[@Decco6306]

3:03 lol "FarCry"

[@MrIonization]

I thought the background flickering would be another gag or something but it's probably just Linus's lambo shaking the house while it warms up

[@TheMrFishnDucks]

Good video. Keep up the good work.

[@Diablos199]

1:53 linus wtf went wrong with the green screen editing? Look at ur hands.

[@xavierstrietman7673]

Ya it kinda was flashing I think the green screen moved

[@Michael-rt2tl]

He was moving... you try doing a better job =P

[@xavierstrietman7673]

Yea but I was talking about the background but the hands where cuset because the camera had to proces more because it was in 4k

[@Folopolis]

Yea, why use a green screen effect for a white screen. Why not just use a white screen?

[@rigjuiceturbo]

Folopolis They used to, but then switched to green screen because they liked it better. They mention this in the studio tour.

[@soraaoixxthebluesky]

Hello “4 years ago” Linus, we are finally there with hybrid ray tracing from Nvidia.

[@ThiagoHille]

Thanks from Brazil! Now, I understood :D

[@karottenbob]

Damn, There was a pulseway ad with Linus in it, before the video started, and I didn't realise, I wasn't watching the real video. about to download pulseway now

[@Suppboio]

what about HBAO?

[@richardgarcia6201]

HBAO is for movies : ) HBO: lol

[@mrmrgameboy1998]

4K huh?

[@gamejames5839]

even simplier, its the dark aura around objects which makes them look like the lighting and shadows around them is "reallistic"

[@davideverett2]

Thanks for the lesson.

[@ChromaticBlade]

i like the fact that this video provides 4k option.... like everybody have 500 dollars for a damn 4k monitor :3

[@thegaminggoathd]

Some people do, and the people who don't can use it for higher bitrates.

[@marcoalmeida2022]

in about a year or so you'll regret that statement

[@MartinGuitar4ever]

It doesn't matter if you have a 4K monitor. KZbin does less compression of the videos the higher the resolution is. So 4K on youtube provides higher bitrate and better quality.

[@RWoody1995]

MartinGuitar4ever yay people actually know this now, was getting annoying with people bitching about it when they dont know the facts xD

[@Mediarahan003]

Lol. I paid 550 for my 1440p monitor.

[@chupan3k]

3:24 linus predicts RTX

[@Fortstorm]

Discussing the difference between modems and routers would make a useful video.

[@tienshido]

😂 I’m a new indie game dev learning about all this and I saw you! Lol I HAD to click on it :) thank you dude lol.

[@Ze-Germanzuk]

I just want to know if I should turn it on or off in H1Z1

[@TheFlacker99]

Ze Germanz Turn it off for more FPS, turn it on for a prettier scene but less FPS.

[@DaiM0NaS1]

+TheFlacker99 (Flak) for a MOBA like dota and lol ambient occlusion on or off? vsync and anti-alliasing or on off?

[@TheFlacker99]

DaiM0NaS1 All depends on preference and what your computer can handle.

[@someweeb3650]

+DaiM0NaS1 anti ailasing always has to be on unless you enjoy the sceen being made of squares and being able to count every pixel, vsync should be on all the time. and use SSAO for moba's and games like DAYZ, or CS:GO

[@DaiM0NaS1]

ok thanks for the info mate :)

[@Smoobloob]

4:35 for some reason I hear a low hum in my right headphone.

[@verbicide4736]

Yes, I can also hear this hum.

[@darknightmike10yearsago]

I heard it too

[@Blaze6108]

The fun thing about ray tracing is that it is actually used in some games, such as in Source Engine based ones, like Portal 2, the Left 4 Dead series and Counter Strike Global Offensive. However, it is pre-computed and baked into the levels so that your computer does not have to calculate it in real-time, which of course means that Source lighting can't be dynamic except in some particular cases. It's still a pretty cool thing though, I wonder why not many other engines support it.

[@TheShadow69s]

linus covered this near the end of the video talking about a type of "hybrid" occlusion filter to try and get the best of both worlds pre-calculated areas with real time application of ssao

[@TheShadow69s]

theRealEnzyme which is a shame, skyrim environment textures with parallax mapping is a great example of how it can be done effectively and makes the game almost look like its using tessellation for the world then again this only really shines when using enb

[@Bouzoo09]

"... but it's still a far cry from true ambient occlusion..." I see what you did there Linus.

[@anuvabsaha5317]

Nvidia RTX implemented Ray-Tracing Tech. Make a Video on that too! It'll be Very Interesting !

[@Burbsi]

well... it WOULD be interesting if nVidia finally started enabling the RTX feature in the few game titles that support raytracing. i wonder how long they can sell cards without the games showing its potential

[@TheVideoGuy3]

is it just me or is the video a bit glitchy?

[@xraysteamlord]

yes, for a moment i thought there was something wrong with my gpu

[@TheVideoGuy3]

***** yeah, same. that's why I ask. And my GPU have fucked up some times and given me bluescreens so I restarted my PC just incase

[@dannygallegos1362]

Linus uploads in 4k now!!

[@aggenbagh]

simply amazing

[@spectronimo7964]

listening in 2019 when rtx is actually a thing

[@someitguy2175]

Stupid modern technology and it's limitations....

[@realMrVent]

I always thought of it as "that thing that makes the corners shadowy", but this works too. :D

[@kaspersergej]

A Quickie about display panel types would rock.

[@tomniklas394]

„Raytracing is impossible to render in real time!“ Nvidia: hold my Beer !!!

[@doltBmB]

This is a really bad and overcomplicated way of explaining AO. AO is a technique invented by Pixar (like many things in computer graphics) before raytracing was fast enough to be used in movies. Rather than trace each ray of light to see what it hits, you just assume the entire environment is lit, and make a few checks to see if anything is blocking the sky. Taking into account only nearby objects. That is much faster but can look weird sometimes. This shows up as a smooth darkening of corners and depressions in the surface. SSAO is a technique invented by Crytek for Crysis. Instead of the more accurate and expensive AO calculations used by Pixar, they simply look at the depth values from the graphics card and use a type of blur effect to make objects that are near each other on the screen cast a smooth darkening around them like AO. SS stands for Screen Space. HBAO is an improvement by Nvidia, that rather than a simple blur tries to more accurately estimate the "horizon" created by nearby obstacles. Horizon Based AO.

[@jakejohnson5977]

doltBmB Ambient Occlusion was not invented by Pixar.

[@Heroinexoxo]

doltBmB Not only did you complicate things even more by using false information because you clearly didn't educate yourself entirely about this subject at all and mostly just copied a bunch of shit from Wikipedia and some other shit you just kind of ran with because you're clueless.. you also went as far as to say that this video was "really bad" and "really complicated" when in fact, your comment is really TERRIBLE and really just.. wrong. Try harder, son.

[@doltBmB]

8of12[BORG] Maybe it's more confusing because it's too technical, but I can assure you it's perfectly accurate. AO was invented by pixar for use in renderman.

[@Heroinexoxo]

Until I see some citation coming from a few credible sources beyond YOU, I am not reassured of anything.

[@NiwlGames]

+doltBmB please research your shit before talking, it is first described in a research paper by ILM back in 2002 working on pearl harbor.

[@gillo2011]

Now that Linus uploads in 4k I must get a 4k monitor!

[@legit0101]

I really enjoyed the ambient occlusion fo dis video

[@lucyullrich7573]

Ray Tracing is theeeeere

[@GoatOfTheWoods]

3:35 Nearly impossible to achieve, you say...just wait 4 years

[@dr4aces]

Best outro in quite some time :)

[@JohnDeepwater]

Because of that rumble and green screen glitches, I expected an all out horror outro. Was ready for anything.

[@RiasatSalminSami]

AO in video games look horrible and unreal. I turn it off usually. Because, in lot of games- AO appears when you go near a wall and it creates black borders around the object/character even where the light ray is falling. It makes it looked like cell shaded. Ah, and Far Cry 3 was worse one I've ever seen. Anyway, I just noticed Ambient Occlusion [AO] around Linus's hand.

[@SerBallister]

Because screen space.

[@tippiersky4534]

You're shitting me. Games look 1000 worse without AO, they look cartoony.

[@robin23200]

First Dislike

[@georgeshady1999]

Its not his fault if you're too stupid to understand

[@OneBigBug]

georgeshady1999 I've done 3D graphics programming before, I have a pretty strong understanding of the subject at least compared to laymen, which I believe is who this video is for. I couldn't really follow along with what Linus was saying to have any meaningful understanding of his points from the perspective of someone who knew nothing, and I had the benefit of having researched the topic on numerous occasions in the past to be able to fill in the gaps. It sounded like the intro to a wikipedia entry on the subject read at high speed, not an attempt to convey useful information to the uninformed. As with a lot of these Fast as Possibles, it seems like it's either telling people who know something they already know, or being not particularly useful to those who don't.

[@27klickslegend]

OneBigBug I've not done much 3D development but I understood this; Well, If what Linus was trying to say is that ambient occlusion is basically an advanced lighting rendering technique that takes into account light sources and obstructions as well as light reflection off said obstructions.

[@hristaki99]

This channel is for smart people, not dumbshit idiots like you.

[@jarvismcnamara1248]

OneBigBug Well I've never known what ambient occlusion did at all and this seemed pretty damn easy to understand to me.

[@RallyemiXXedup]

Great video as always, but why is the volume level on these videos always so low compared to other videos on youtube?

[@FiveOFox302]

Great video!

[@WraithDesignz]

AO = My All Time Fav Texture Map. :)

[@ezydenias8505]

weird, your video is the most technical I found, it was still a little bit to flat to use it for learning for an exam, but hell it still beats most of those gamy videos by far.

[@360techh]

techquickie in 4K! sweeeeeet i wish i only could experience that

[@smartydix]

Wow Linus, an advertisement which has something to do with the channel and might even interest me, amazing...

[@numaguex3937]

Hey Linus, could you make a video on how touch screens works ?

[@jonaerakua1]

You are good at what you do, mr explainer man! You got a new subscriber

[@CarlosQuesadaR]

Came here due to Microsoft Flight Simulator. It would be nice to see you analyzing that game

[@jonesthewheelman9726]

Woah. 4K option available already.

[@ilikefreemansmind]

Hey Linus I know you did a video on SLI vs Crossfire, but im curious about how each works. I heard SLI simply divides the screen into halves, thirds or even quarters assigning each section to one gpu, while crossfire has each card render ever other frame, or every 3rd frame, or even every 4th frame. Is this true? it would be cool to show a video on how this works. Thanks

[@weirdo_2349]

I just saw this in ARMA 3 and I was wondering what it was, Linus read my mind.

[@FlaneerBeer]

1:07 Ambient lightning is a part of Phong shading ;) I know that because I had to implement it twice this semester and I'm watching this video now because I have a graphics final tomorrow. Never thought I would be watching Linus the day before a test to actually prepare for the test haha.

[@mctonale]

Hey Linus, was wondering if you are able to make that Mac vs pc video. I don't think the missus fully understands why I'd rather upgrade her pc. Could use some backup lol. Thanks.

[@joniund9256]

Looks like other people noticed the low rumbling sound near the end of the video, but did anyone else notice the screen (youtube player screen) flashing?? I started once the sound rumbling started. Kinda odd.

[@Abyssic1]

so guys, i had this with all 4k videos since two or three weeks: as soon as i switch to 4k and skip the video back to start so that it switches to 4k, it loads the whole player anew... from html5 to flash-player. this sucks because it seems like flash-player can't handle 4k and drops loads and loads of frames and is lagging like crazy. i haven't had this problem before, i could watch 4k easily with my hardware...

[@jonesthewheelman9726]

Hmm, may I suggest a topic about headphones. What is there about impedance, frequency response and the like?

[@SoJa92]

Some sound issues at the end of the video as well as flickering. I will seriously consider ADATA SSDs when I need one again!

[@kephafan]

Linus, what is the gizmo on your right hip that you have to keep checking/adjusting?

[@danielroytanked2375]

Linus there is so easy problems with the end of your video it could be just me but the background keeps flashing black except for the corners

[@PeJayCee]

But ambient occlusion is just an approximation. It's a cheaty way of doing shadows which doesn't usually take into account light sources, instead it generates shadows depending on how close objects are to each other. Global illumination (GI) can then light up these areas with bouncing light off other objects. True shadows require ray-tracing or other light sourced based methods, which then need high sample rates to reduce any noise.

[@AmaroqStarwind]

3:39 There was a company that was making "Ray Processing Units" a few years ago, but they got bought out by another company and nobody has heard of the RPU since. However, an RPU would have theoretically enabled realtime Ray Tracing and Ambient Occlusion at decent framerates and resolutions. Since it would have been a separate component from the GPU, the same card would have been good for the same resolutions/framerates in newer, prettier games as long as you had a better graphics card, and the same graphics card would be good for the same pretty games at higher resolutions/framerates as long as you had a better RPU.

[@SerBallister]

That sounds quite impractical, you would need to send all your geometry to another processor on top of the GPU and then copy it to the GPU for compositing, which will cause massive stalls. How would it deal with things like vertex shaders which on a GPU would be doing animation for instance ?

[@RiazGaffar]

I Like the black screens at the end

[@SirScythe]

nice video and finally in 4k! :o

[@osidii]

You got that tree panning from Enemy of the state

[@jeff3864]

anyone else notice the low frequency hum near the end of the video? also the green screen flickering, i would hazard a guess was related.