I've recently released the Light Propagation Volumes (custom GI plugin) for #UE5 LPV is an algorithm of resolving the diffuse light bounce from the perspective of the sun in world space (firstly introduced in 2009 by Crytek). It's non-temporal, performant and lightweight.

The best results are achieved if used alongside Distance Field AO, which is a built-in feature of the engine. The plugin also uses global DF data to occlude the bounce light to prevent most of light leaking that the method is known for.

Cascades system is also used to resolve GI on greater distance than you've previously might have seen in the UE4 implementation of the algo. But it's still moderate compared to Lumen. In fact Lumen is infinitely more reaslitic, but has issues you might be already familiar with.

It's only the first release however and man it's ambitious. Tired as hell... And there are still issues mainly related to the RSM capture (which is the only current performance bottleneck), which I intend to work on further. Anyways, hoping you liked this little presentation!

The goat Dmitry releasing another great plugin 😁 congrats!

Thanks, just doing stuff I'm personally interested in, haha

Spectacular work! 👏

Thanks 🤝

wait its already out??? Where??

Yeah, forgot about the link... You'll also find the link to download the runtime demo there:

I need this in my engine.

This is an amazing product. I believe you will have a lot of success in marketing it if you have side by side comparisons with lumen or a video with lumen shots and the same exact frame right after the lumen shot showing your system so it's very easy to see. Also show the fps

Thank you! Already did that recently: Comparing it to Lumen is tough, since there's a major loss in realism. However I'm not really pushing realism, but that's what eye is good at catching for anyway.

It is very cool but the bounce seems to not cover enough distance in many situations compared to lumen. even in this demo video there are instances where the whole side of the street across from the sunlit side should be bathed in bounce light but it's not at all. just blue

Good work, gonna look at implementing this in onr of my next projects.

love your work man, will definitely be getting this. Once you've had a good rest do you plan on including other light types to the contribution?

Thanks! Didn't planned it initially, but I'll consider... if not emmissive materials, custom light actors are possible, such as area lights and so on.

Many thanks! Have you tested this in VR yet? I’m very eager to try it in VR production!

Well I made sure it renders in stereo mode, but haven't tried VR itself yet... Going to test a little bit later. Also might be a major drawback, but it's deferred only. Currently can't do much about it, since an engine limitation.

Thank you sir! Looking forward to test it and see the updates! Good job as always 🫡

Thanks 🤝

Wans't the main drawback of this is that it doesn't handle thin object very well?

Yeah, it still pretty much doesn't.

I'm curious how you would overcome that. Like those canopy in your example

I would embrace it instead :) Game development is often about iteration and the longer it gets, the more expensive it becomes. Elden Ring has numerous instances of light/ao/fog leaking and nobody ever complained... everybody is just playing the game. I'm very inspired by that

That's a fair take. Although, personally, I might reach into OCD territory Perfect is the enemy of Good Enough I suppose

Thank you for your work, I always loved playing with LPVs in UE4! I'll get it for my next project, but I'm stuck in 5.0 for my current one. I probably already know the answer but Is there any way previous versions of UE5 will be supported?

Can't do :( There's a specific engine thing that I'm using and that is available only since 5.5.

I'll hack something else and buy it later then, thanks!

We shipped XCOM 2 with LPV it was great

Oh nice!! I've recently tried to compile a list of games where LPV was shipped, but didn't find anything outside Crysis 2 itself.

@ChrisPerrella Arkham Knight has all lights using LPVs with single bounce. Speaking of which, does all lights use LPVs or sunlight? I remember in UE LPVs was limited to just directional light.

@ChrisPerrella Same here, just a sunlight. LPV wouldn't provide enough resolution for anything else imo... it'll always be not enough. That's why Voxel GI was introduced, but that's a completely another story :D

@EyeOfScar We added “ambient” light actors that allowed for injecting fake GI for artistic direction and gameplay visibility. It was all linked to the main light and toggled with destruction - great stuff.

@EyeOfScar Oh I actually experimented with it as well! But didn't figure it'll be practical for someone. I was wrong :D

If you ask me, we would only be using techniques like that for dynamic lighting and standard baked lighting for static scenes. Sure it’s less accurate than a path tracer but it’s temporally stable and runs way better.

I'm highly interested in this. I have several of your other plugins, including the SS Fog Scattering, and I'm interested in the Sky Creator, CMAA2, and this LPV system. Silly question maybe, but do these all play well together? Could I DM you what I'm trying to accomplish?

Sure :)

Whats its use case

Primarily games that don't strive for performance hungry next-gen visuals, but still needs somewhat believable GI

where's the model for this, please. want to try our tech engine on it.

appreciated.

Incredible 🔥