Physically Based Rendering in Filament | Hacker News Reader

Physically Based Rendering in Filament

google.github.io

48 pointsindigo94517 comments

Filament is a great lightweight cross-platform PBR rendering library. There's a few things missing (real GPU instancing is one), but in terms of shadows/antialiasing/color grading, it's very powerful. The material (shader) language is also very accessible.

I maintain an open-source Dart/Flutter package[0] which is mostly a wrapper around Filament. This makes it considerably easier to have a single UI+codebase that runs across macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, and Web.

[0] https://github.com/nmfisher/thermion

Man, I got excited for a second from the title thinking this was about a way to produce 3d printer filament from PBR settings, so you could tweak a material on the computer and have your filament match the digital version

It is funny u say that because my head went directly to physically based rendering but i dont 3d print.

I use the page to test scrolling.

Nice, it's also a great test for my https://github.com/EsportToys/LibreScroll

This is yet another library that made some Google I/O headlines, had an Android framework, and eventually got forgotten.

EDIT: Indeed, that was the case.

https://developers.google.com/sceneform/develop

Huh? That literally says that the (higher-level) "Sceneform" library uses Filament for the PBR, isn't that the opposite of it being forgotten? What am I missing, I really don't follow Android development ...

You should pay more attention to the whole site,

"Sceneform SDK for Android was open sourced and archived (github.com/google-ar/sceneform-android-sdk) with version 1.16.0."

Sceneform != Filament. Sceneform was an AR-oriented framework that used Filament as its renderer. Filament itself is very much alive and under active development.

As far as I remember, one was used to implement the other.

Can you provide examples of commercial Google products and SDKs using Filament?

Like I said, Sceneform used Filament (not the other way around). I know of a few Google products that use Filament but having left the company I'm not sure what I'm at liberty to talk about unfortunately. Btw, I'm one of the authors of Filament :)

I know, I do follow you since the Filthy Rich Client blog series at Sun, hence why I asked.

that's going to be a confusing name with the connections to 3D printing

I'm not sure how it's confusing. Is it any more confusing than "v8" also being a type of internal combustion engine or blender also being a kitchen appliance?

Yes.

v8 as a drink and as an engine.

blender as a piece of software and as an appliance

filament as a physical building material and as a physical rendering material.

One of these things is not like the other (or rather, one of these things sounds very much like the other).

You can make lithophanes with 3d prints. I don't know about anyone else but that's what I thought this post would be about.

v8 is also a beverage.

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