dslightingengine
@dslightingengine.bsky.social
DSLightingEngine is a renderer replacement for DS2/DS3.
Discord : https://discord.gg/uwaXYDmTyS
Donations: https://ko-fi.com/ragevitamins, https://www.patreon.com/c/DarksoulsLightingEngine
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ganesh-mamadapur-45395064/
Discord : https://discord.gg/uwaXYDmTyS
Donations: https://ko-fi.com/ragevitamins, https://www.patreon.com/c/DarksoulsLightingEngine
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ganesh-mamadapur-45395064/
Pinned
Darksouls3 Lighting Engine - Tech/Update
Ragevitamins published a post on Ko-fi
ko-fi.com
Made a blog post about all the technology and updates about Darksouls3 Lighting engine.
ko-fi.com/post/Darksou...
ko-fi.com/post/Darksou...
Reposted by dslightingengine
Merry Christmas to those celebrating today! Not a white Christmas in Berlin yet (as is the usual to be honest). Is it snowing where you are? If not, maybe enjoy some virtual snow in my evolution of snow rendering video from weeks back 😅 perhaps play some Shadows of the Empire!
youtu.be/j3fLyhOm7X8
youtu.be/j3fLyhOm7X8
The Evolution of Snow Rendering - From Flat Polygons To Path-Traced Lighting [Sponsored]
YouTube video by Digital Foundry
youtu.be
December 25, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Merry Christmas to those celebrating today! Not a white Christmas in Berlin yet (as is the usual to be honest). Is it snowing where you are? If not, maybe enjoy some virtual snow in my evolution of snow rendering video from weeks back 😅 perhaps play some Shadows of the Empire!
youtu.be/j3fLyhOm7X8
youtu.be/j3fLyhOm7X8
Torch shadows and lighting are handled special in Path tracer mode. Torch is always sampled, Shadows are rendered considering the size of the light. Shadows are denoised using NRD-Sigma before final composition.
December 25, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Torch shadows and lighting are handled special in Path tracer mode. Torch is always sampled, Shadows are rendered considering the size of the light. Shadows are denoised using NRD-Sigma before final composition.
Indirect only Path tracing(Raster local lights) vs Full Path tracing. Long range specular lighting showcased here
December 21, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Indirect only Path tracing(Raster local lights) vs Full Path tracing. Long range specular lighting showcased here
Multiple lights all casting shadows for every object with confidence inputs being fed into NRD. I simplified the confidence to only detect Shadow/UnShadowed as NRD handles smooth changes in lighting already.
December 20, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Multiple lights all casting shadows for every object with confidence inputs being fed into NRD. I simplified the confidence to only detect Shadow/UnShadowed as NRD handles smooth changes in lighting already.
WIP : Fixing temporal lags in shadow regions using confidence inputs when doing path traced local lights. Temporal gradients are computed by replaying the previous frame path in current bvh and comparing with previous stored inputs.
December 17, 2025 at 8:24 PM
WIP : Fixing temporal lags in shadow regions using confidence inputs when doing path traced local lights. Temporal gradients are computed by replaying the previous frame path in current bvh and comparing with previous stored inputs.
Implemented mixing Screenspace data with RT BVH world. After a ray hits, first check is Screen-space(Strict tolerances), then SHARC and if both miss it falls back to computing the full lighting, notice the reflections correctly have lighting in case of screen-space failures.
December 6, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Implemented mixing Screenspace data with RT BVH world. After a ray hits, first check is Screen-space(Strict tolerances), then SHARC and if both miss it falls back to computing the full lighting, notice the reflections correctly have lighting in case of screen-space failures.
WIP Async Compute(BVH Build with Skinning). To fully load the GPU. The path tracing is done at 1440p as well as the rendering. A bit complicated when mixed with DX11, but was able to save 0.5ms frame-time. As ideally Shadowmap passes can also be overlapped with other compute.
November 27, 2025 at 2:19 PM
WIP Async Compute(BVH Build with Skinning). To fully load the GPU. The path tracing is done at 1440p as well as the rendering. A bit complicated when mixed with DX11, but was able to save 0.5ms frame-time. As ideally Shadowmap passes can also be overlapped with other compute.
Better utilization of SHARC and Updates to Denoiser(Based on Nvidia NRD). SHARC cache (4 bounces/Quarter Res). Main pass(1 Bounce, SHARC pulls the rest of the bounce info). Without/With SHARC support. 3rd Image is full composite with SHARC support(Ignore grass as that is WIP)
November 20, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Better utilization of SHARC and Updates to Denoiser(Based on Nvidia NRD). SHARC cache (4 bounces/Quarter Res). Main pass(1 Bounce, SHARC pulls the rest of the bounce info). Without/With SHARC support. 3rd Image is full composite with SHARC support(Ignore grass as that is WIP)
Dynamic BVH Update : Now the cloth bits are in the bvh as well.
Here is full comparision of when disabled vs enabled
Here is full comparision of when disabled vs enabled
November 16, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Dynamic BVH Update : Now the cloth bits are in the bvh as well.
Here is full comparision of when disabled vs enabled
Here is full comparision of when disabled vs enabled
Skinned characters/weapons are almost fully in the bvh, color is now part of the "Vertex Bake" which is done when the dynamic object is first rendered and cached
November 14, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Skinned characters/weapons are almost fully in the bvh, color is now part of the "Vertex Bake" which is done when the dynamic object is first rendered and cached
Reposted by dslightingengine
Continuing the live stream series "illusory shows Keith (@marrowhyena.bsky.social) NES games".
Will tonight be the night he beats Fire N Ice? Tune in now to hang out and find out:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNt-...
Will tonight be the night he beats Fire N Ice? Tune in now to hang out and find out:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNt-...
Fire N Ice Finale? feat @illusorywall
YouTube video by Keith Ballard
www.youtube.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Continuing the live stream series "illusory shows Keith (@marrowhyena.bsky.social) NES games".
Will tonight be the night he beats Fire N Ice? Tune in now to hang out and find out:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNt-...
Will tonight be the night he beats Fire N Ice? Tune in now to hang out and find out:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNt-...
Skinned BVH Comparision, without and with, the ancient dragon creates lot of occlusion /reflections in scene. Note there is no proper light bleed yet have used a default grey for skinned characters right now.
November 10, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Skinned BVH Comparision, without and with, the ancient dragon creates lot of occlusion /reflections in scene. Note there is no proper light bleed yet have used a default grey for skinned characters right now.
Animated characters now in BVH. I am still working on the right importance sampling for variance reduction, the noise in the reflection is due to the reflection of the GI lighting mostly.
November 9, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Animated characters now in BVH. I am still working on the right importance sampling for variance reduction, the noise in the reflection is due to the reflection of the GI lighting mostly.
Reposted by dslightingengine
ARC Raiders has gotten a lot of buzz on PC for being an Unreal Engine game "done right". Does it live up to the hype? Have Embark Studio managed to avoid common issues found in nearly all Unreal Engine titles? Find out in my in-depth PC review with optimised settings!
youtu.be/jCWtIIlFXHA
youtu.be/jCWtIIlFXHA
November 8, 2025 at 3:43 PM
ARC Raiders has gotten a lot of buzz on PC for being an Unreal Engine game "done right". Does it live up to the hype? Have Embark Studio managed to avoid common issues found in nearly all Unreal Engine titles? Find out in my in-depth PC review with optimised settings!
youtu.be/jCWtIIlFXHA
youtu.be/jCWtIIlFXHA
Slowly improving the Path tracer in DS2. Note direct lighting is still analytical, but 2 bounces are done for indirect while sampling the direct radiance from screenspace, if that fails it will sample the sun light right now (with shadow ray). Here is base game vs latest LE
November 7, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Slowly improving the Path tracer in DS2. Note direct lighting is still analytical, but 2 bounces are done for indirect while sampling the direct radiance from screenspace, if that fails it will sample the sun light right now (with shadow ray). Here is base game vs latest LE
Adding the .5D(CameraDepth) to the 2D motion vectors. This reduces valid history being rejected.
November 5, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Adding the .5D(CameraDepth) to the 2D motion vectors. This reduces valid history being rejected.
Reposted by dslightingengine
Ray marching is a common approach to GPU-accelerated volume rendering, but gives biased transmittance estimates. My new #SIGGRAPHAsia paper (+code) proposes an amazingly simple formula to eliminate this bias almost completely without using more samples.
momentsingraphics.de/SiggraphAsia...
momentsingraphics.de/SiggraphAsia...
October 30, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Ray marching is a common approach to GPU-accelerated volume rendering, but gives biased transmittance estimates. My new #SIGGRAPHAsia paper (+code) proposes an amazingly simple formula to eliminate this bias almost completely without using more samples.
momentsingraphics.de/SiggraphAsia...
momentsingraphics.de/SiggraphAsia...
Left : Current best lighting, which has sky shadow maps, SSGI/SSR.
Right : Hardware Path tracing with 2 indirect bounces, total 3, as primary bounce is not done. This is not final, but is very promising and provides context on how it changes things
Right : Hardware Path tracing with 2 indirect bounces, total 3, as primary bounce is not done. This is not final, but is very promising and provides context on how it changes things
October 31, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Left : Current best lighting, which has sky shadow maps, SSGI/SSR.
Right : Hardware Path tracing with 2 indirect bounces, total 3, as primary bounce is not done. This is not final, but is very promising and provides context on how it changes things
Right : Hardware Path tracing with 2 indirect bounces, total 3, as primary bounce is not done. This is not final, but is very promising and provides context on how it changes things
WIP RTGI. Now doing 2 indirect lighting, there are still some issues, but working on them
October 31, 2025 at 1:35 PM
WIP RTGI. Now doing 2 indirect lighting, there are still some issues, but working on them
Normals were already part of the BVH Geometry buffers, Albedo/Roughness/Metalness are now added and stored as part of vertex geometry accessible from hit point. This will help in Color transport especially for diffuse lighting as its a very low frequency signal.
October 28, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Normals were already part of the BVH Geometry buffers, Albedo/Roughness/Metalness are now added and stored as part of vertex geometry accessible from hit point. This will help in Color transport especially for diffuse lighting as its a very low frequency signal.
Testing out HWRT, BVH. Now all lighting is combined. The left image is with Skyshadowmap, Sunshadow, SSGI + SSR. The Right image is just SunShadow, Now Skylighting/SSGI/SSR is now all wrapped in HWRT. It just works
October 25, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Testing out HWRT, BVH. Now all lighting is combined. The left image is with Skyshadowmap, Sunshadow, SSGI + SSR. The Right image is just SunShadow, Now Skylighting/SSGI/SSR is now all wrapped in HWRT. It just works
More BVH work, Now able to seamlessly load BVH across the zones as each zone have their own BVH(BLASes) with some overlaps in-between. I am yet to move the builds to Async compute queues and is next on my list as all this is foundational work for RT.
October 25, 2025 at 9:18 AM
More BVH work, Now able to seamlessly load BVH across the zones as each zone have their own BVH(BLASes) with some overlaps in-between. I am yet to move the builds to Async compute queues and is next on my list as all this is foundational work for RT.
Progress on BVH/HWRT Implementation. Support lookup buffers to fetch the Triangle data for hit point, other attributes like vertex colors will be added as well. The Normal is important part as bounce calculations will be based on that.
October 23, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Progress on BVH/HWRT Implementation. Support lookup buffers to fetch the Triangle data for hit point, other attributes like vertex colors will be added as well. The Normal is important part as bounce calculations will be based on that.
HW RayTracing Acceleration Structure(TLAS) Debug view
Completed building the BVH - Bottom Level and Top Level Acceleration Structures
. The debug view the is hit distance shown - similar to depth buffer
Completed building the BVH - Bottom Level and Top Level Acceleration Structures
. The debug view the is hit distance shown - similar to depth buffer
October 22, 2025 at 6:26 PM
HW RayTracing Acceleration Structure(TLAS) Debug view
Completed building the BVH - Bottom Level and Top Level Acceleration Structures
. The debug view the is hit distance shown - similar to depth buffer
Completed building the BVH - Bottom Level and Top Level Acceleration Structures
. The debug view the is hit distance shown - similar to depth buffer
Reposted by dslightingengine
Dark Souls 2 Firelink Edition is finally out!
This is a new DS2 experience with new visuals, items, weapons, armor, enemy and item location and many more changes. Tell your friends and family.
I hope you all enjoy it.
This is a new DS2 experience with new visuals, items, weapons, armor, enemy and item location and many more changes. Tell your friends and family.
I hope you all enjoy it.
Firelink Edition
New enemy placement, item location, armor sets, weapons, decorations...A new experience and look for Dark Souls Ⅱ!
www.nexusmods.com
October 15, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Dark Souls 2 Firelink Edition is finally out!
This is a new DS2 experience with new visuals, items, weapons, armor, enemy and item location and many more changes. Tell your friends and family.
I hope you all enjoy it.
This is a new DS2 experience with new visuals, items, weapons, armor, enemy and item location and many more changes. Tell your friends and family.
I hope you all enjoy it.