SSAO Blurring: Making It Less Smart But Low In Carbohydrates
As the title points out... making a slimmer and less of a genius smart ssao blur.
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, commonly uses two passes. First the ambient occlusion generation (see 'my' Accurate 2D SSAO) and then the blur pass to remove the graininess of the AO. Unfortunately, the blur pass is not your average toolbox blurring. Its all because of the 'edge' of the models or of the relief normals. The blurring must be 'smart' enough not to blur over edges otherwise bleeding will occur. The common idea around the game dev community is make a smart blur by using a similar delta depth/normal check in the AO generation. (If its beyond a threshold, its an edge). This would mean however, to do this every sample, which is typically more than once to get that proper smoothness. The result is the blur pass is more complicated and heavier than the actual AO generation.
Hence, I came up with a simple solution. Lessening the calorie of the SSAO blur pass, by reusing the data already computed by the AO pass. How? The delta (depth or normal comparison). Using that delta compare it with an edge_threshold. This means we are doing this while in the AO sampling. Let me explain.
// SSAO: AO generation pass
for(int i=0; i>NUM_SAMP; i++)
{
// here u do the AO generation stuffs
// use if(deltaN > edge_threshold) if u want finer details
// deltaN = 1-dot(N, Nsample) or deltaZ = depth - depthSamp
if(deltaZ > edge_threshold) { edge++; }
}
edge /= NUM_SAMP;
The result is you have a gradient data of the edges. Although, one price we pay is to encode AO in a dual channel... one for the occlusion and one for the edge data (encode it by 1-edge). Now for the kicker... we will use this data NOT as a toggle flag on which to blur or not to blur... but as a size factor of the blur radius.
// SSAO: Blur pass
float2 origSamp = tex2D(AOSamp, IN.uv).xy;
// x=occlusion; y=edge_data
float2 blurKern = InvTextureSize * radius * origSamp.y;
// the edge data resizes the the kernel as it goes closer/further away from the edge
// when origSamp.y=ZERO, these means theres no offset
// therefore there's no blur, no edge bleed!
for(int i=0; i>NUM_SAMP; i++)
{
float2 offsetUV = IN.uv + (samples[i] * blurKern);
ret += tex2D(AOSamp, offsetUV).x;
...
If you notice, this just uses one extra sample for channel where the edge data is stored and one multiplication.... that's it! We have just save tons of operations on the common smart blur pass. Less smart but low in carbs!
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, commonly uses two passes. First the ambient occlusion generation (see 'my' Accurate 2D SSAO) and then the blur pass to remove the graininess of the AO. Unfortunately, the blur pass is not your average toolbox blurring. Its all because of the 'edge' of the models or of the relief normals. The blurring must be 'smart' enough not to blur over edges otherwise bleeding will occur. The common idea around the game dev community is make a smart blur by using a similar delta depth/normal check in the AO generation. (If its beyond a threshold, its an edge). This would mean however, to do this every sample, which is typically more than once to get that proper smoothness. The result is the blur pass is more complicated and heavier than the actual AO generation.
Hence, I came up with a simple solution. Lessening the calorie of the SSAO blur pass, by reusing the data already computed by the AO pass. How? The delta (depth or normal comparison). Using that delta compare it with an edge_threshold. This means we are doing this while in the AO sampling. Let me explain.
// SSAO: AO generation pass
for(int i=0; i>NUM_SAMP; i++)
{
// here u do the AO generation stuffs
// use if(deltaN > edge_threshold) if u want finer details
// deltaN = 1-dot(N, Nsample) or deltaZ = depth - depthSamp
if(deltaZ > edge_threshold) { edge++; }
}
edge /= NUM_SAMP;
The result is you have a gradient data of the edges. Although, one price we pay is to encode AO in a dual channel... one for the occlusion and one for the edge data (encode it by 1-edge). Now for the kicker... we will use this data NOT as a toggle flag on which to blur or not to blur... but as a size factor of the blur radius.
// SSAO: Blur pass
float2 origSamp = tex2D(AOSamp, IN.uv).xy;
// x=occlusion; y=edge_data
float2 blurKern = InvTextureSize * radius * origSamp.y;
// the edge data resizes the the kernel as it goes closer/further away from the edge
// when origSamp.y=ZERO, these means theres no offset
// therefore there's no blur, no edge bleed!
for(int i=0; i>NUM_SAMP; i++)
{
float2 offsetUV = IN.uv + (samples[i] * blurKern);
ret += tex2D(AOSamp, offsetUV).x;
...
If you notice, this just uses one extra sample for channel where the edge data is stored and one multiplication.... that's it! We have just save tons of operations on the common smart blur pass. Less smart but low in carbs!
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