Dear Fellow Scholars, this is Two Minute Papers with Dr. Károly Zsolnai-Fehér.
Today is a good day. Scientists at NVIDIA have done it. Now, I hear you asking, Doctor, what
are you talking about? Well, we like to say that ray tracing is the holy grail of computer graphics
research, and within ray tracing, wave-optical light simulations perhaps are the holy grail.
Yes, the holy grail within the holy grail. However, achieving that is really difficult.
You see, ray tracing means writing a simulation program that takes rays of light and bounces them
around in the scene, creating a beautiful, photorealistic image. Note that I used
the word rays of light. However, light is an electromagnetic wave. Yes a wave, not a ray.
If we simulated it as a wave instead, it could create a convincing image of incredibly
beautiful microscopic structures, like light diffraction off of the scales of a Brazilian
Rainbow Boa or a piece of Bornite ore. Or it could create an image of beetle shells that
have multiple layers that bounce light around between them. These beautiful wave effects
can also be observed in the spoke guards of some bicycles, and other parts as well. All beautiful
shiny rainbowy things that are unfortunately almost impossible to simulate. This previous
technique from just a year ago can at least start rendering the diffractive surface of a CD disk,
but look. This one should be a line, not a collection of dots. So, unfortunately,
no wave-optics simulations for us. Until today. Yes, scientists at NVIDIA introduced a new
technique that can simulate light both as a ray, but as a wave too,
and this gives rise to these beautiful effects. Oh my goodness, look at that gorgeous scene. So good!
And..yes! Finally, when it comes to CDs, rainbowy lines are now lines, we can have our beetles,
our bornite ore, and even the snake. Now hold on to your papers Fellow Scholars,
because here comes the best part, it can simulate all of these phenomena up to 10,000 times faster
than previous techniques. And note that this is a handcrafted technique. A product of pure
human ingenuity. Wow. As we are approaching superintelligence, I mean these AI things are
starting to be able to decode Hungarian words, yes, this is a Hungarian word, really, and yes,
the translation is also correct. But such a pure handcrafted technique is…chef’s kiss. Love it.
And here is something that also made me extremely happy. Look at this. This
is a new work on how to simulate the appearance of glints, shiny little dotty things in a simulator.
This can take car paint materials, snow, shiny presents and create a next level video.
Up to 5x faster than the state of the art. And does that mean that? Oh yes, yes it does! All
this is happening in real time. Pinch me, I can’t believe it. All this beautiful footage in real
time. You see, there is a ton of action happening in light transport simulation research, and these
incredible papers just keep coming out one after another. Breakthrough after breakthrough.
Now, if you allow me, I would also like to show you a really cool new paper from my colleague,
Christian Freude, who was not happy with the way we compare the results of different ray
tracing programs. You see, these two images were computed differently, however, this renderer was
cutting some corners. But where? If we use the usual previous ways of comparing images,
we get some information, but not that much, however, look. Haha! This new technique tells
us exactly where those corners were cut. I was a small part of this paper too,
and if you wish to read it, make sure to check it out in the video description. Bravo Christian!
Thanks for watching and for your generous support, and I'll see you next time!