Deferred rendering pipeline

Korender support deferred rendering pipeline as an experimental feature.

Deferred rendering is a technique where geometry and material data are rendered first into multiple textures called the G-buffer. Lighting is then calculated in a separate pass using this stored data, allowing efficient handling of many dynamic lights. This approach enhances performance in complex scenes and enables various screen-space effects.

To switch to deferred rendering, add the following declaration to the Frame context:

    Frame { 
        DeferredShading()

Deferred rendering pipeline supports the following effects:

Shading material modifiers

Additional material modifiers applied during the shading pass

ibl

Image-based lighting - environment mapping. In forward rendering pipeline IBL can be applied per-object, in deferred shading it's applied globally in screen space via shading material modifier:

    Frame {
        val cubeMap = ...
        DeferredShading {
            Shading(ibl(cubeMap))
        }

Post-shading effects

Screen-space effects applied to the frame after the shading pass

ssr

Screen-space reflections - applied according to the objects' surface properties (metallic/roughness)

    Frame {
        val cubeMap = ...
        DeferredShading {
            PostShading(
                ssr(
                    width = width / 4,
                    height = height / 4,
                    fxaa = true,
                    maxRayTravel = 12f,
                    linearSteps = 120,
                    binarySteps = 4,
                    envTexture = cubeMap
                )
            )
        }

bloom

Screen-space bloom (glow) effect

    Frame {
        val cubeMap = ...
        DeferredShading {
            PostShading(
                bloom(
                    width = width / 2,
                    height = height / 2
                )
            )
        }

Decals

    Frame {
        val cubeMap = ...
        DeferredShading {
            Decal(
                base(
                    colorTexture = texture("texture/decal.png"),
                    metallicFactor = 0.2f
                ),
                position = pos, look = look, up = up, size = 1.6f
            )
        }