Newsletter - Mid June 2014

Ambient Occlusion on Friday the 13th

A sneak peek at upcoming bliss

Today we are happy to announce our first Windows Store app. If there was such a thing as virtual champagne, you'd hear a "pop!" and it'd be flowing all over your keyboard right now!

 If you use Windows 8, and need to quickly convert media from one format to another, then you should benefit from Dogwaffle Media Converter.

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/dogwaffle-media-converter/c1c3d7d1-78dc-4d2b-bb37-265f9c1dfdb8

This app is free. It's also very simple to use, Load a video, and save it back.That about sums it up. Of course you'll want to save it to a different format, or a different codec or other specs as desired. Unless you just want to review it for the greater common good - and please do! And then use your social media to shout out a yelp of doggie happiness!

Other special deals?

Get it from the Author

In addition to our offers, the Author of Project Dogwaffle, Dan Ritchie, makes special offers of his own, on his web site.

http://dan-ritchie.wix.com/howlerpromotion

Be sure to bookmark and have a look when you're ready to waffle up and howl with the latest releases.

And now for something... (not so) completely different: A sneak peek ahead....

Crystal Ball, tell me all.... What's Cooking at Dogwaffle Labs?

(Hint: If you're a Labrador dog owner, no, it's not that kind of labs we're talking about here. It's really more the computer research labs, Dan's kitchen of new recipees for your future artistic creativity.

As part of our ongoing research and development, this week we are experimenting with screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) and some of the useful things that we can use it for.

Ambient occlusion simulates the way light is blocked by nearby objects. This is in contrast to regular, direct shadows, with crisp shadow edges, such as created when an object blocks a distinct directional light source, or a spot light or point light. With ambient occlusion, on the other hand, it is the light that comes from all around the scene, reflected from the sky or off of nearby objects too. You might not see dark high-contrast transitions as much as ever so softly transitioning brightness levels. These are often used in Game design, being 'baked' into the textures. They also contribute to much more realistic lighting effects and soft shadows.

A somewhat related technique is also known as IBL (Image based lighting), where a global surrounding light map is used to represent thousands of individual light sources. Conceptually, it might help understand what's happening. But you can look at it from the point view of the many 'light sources' spread across the skydome's light map, or from the point of view of the hidden areas, occluded parts invisible to the ambient environment. Hence the name, Ambient Occlusion. Either way, it's a good thing, and we're looking to make it even better for your painting experience.

Puppy Ray already included a realistic global illumination ray-tracer that calculates occlusion from nearby objects, but there are other parts of the program where a fast, approximated shadow can be very useful. For example, the 3D designer may gain a new level of realism, without sacrificing rendering speed. Or better yet, foliage rendering might  look a lot more natural.