»NVidia's Luna: Realtime photorealism«

Key Features

PixelShaders 3.0 - The second-generation pixel shading core on the NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7800 graphics processing unit (GPU) enables effects never seen before in real time. Effects like the many layers of Luna’s suit and the real-time refraction on the eyeball, which require more than 300 instructions with per-pixel branching and are computed in 64-bit color.

Translucence - Not only can you see the faint red light transmitted through the surface of Luna’s skin, you can also see the intense light transmitted through the gatekeepers’ bodies. The amount of light transmitted is computed based on the depth of the gatekeepers and the occluding bones and arteries that run through them.

Displacement Mapping - A new displacement mapping technique outlined in NVIDIA’s GPU Gems 2 uses a volumetric texture to compute the surface, allowing displaced bumps to occlude one another.

Real-Time Hair - The fine hairs of Luna’s head are modeled in geometry, simulated in real time, and shadowed based on the number of hairs between each pixel and the light. The result is a realistic shadowing volume rather than individual hairs that cast an overly dark shadow.