AOGAN: A generative adversarial network for screen space ambient occlusion

Ambient occlusion (AO) is a widely-used real-time rendering technique which estimates light intensity on visible scene surfaces. Recently, a number of learning-based AO approaches have been proposed, which bring a new angle to solving screen space shading via a unified learning framework with competitive quality and speed. However, most such methods have high error for complex scenes or tend to ignore details. We propose an end-to-end generative adversarial network for the production of realistic AO, and explore the importance of perceptual loss in the generative model to AO accuracy. An attention mechanism is also described to improve the accuracy of details, whose effectiveness is demonstrated on a wide variety of scenes.

Visual Simulation of Turbulent Foams by Incorporating the Angular Momentum of Foam Particles into the Projective Framework

In this paper, we propose an angular momentum-based advection technique that can express the turbulent foam effect. The motion of foam particles, which are strongly bound to the motion of the underlying fluid, is viscous, and sometimes clumping problems occur. This problem is a decisive factor that makes it difficult to express realistic foam effects. Since foam particles, which are secondary effects, depend on the motion of the underlying water, in order to exaggerate the foam effects or express more lively foam effects, it is inevitable to tune the motion of the underlying water and then readjust the foam particles. Because of such a cumbersome process, the readjustment of the foam effects requires a change in the motion of the underlying water, and it is not easy to produce such a scene because the water and foam effects must change at the same time. In this paper, we present a method to maintain angular momentum-based force from water particles without tuning the motion of the underlying water. We can restore the lost turbulent flow by additional advection of foam particles based on this force. In addition, our method can be integrated with screen-space projection frameworks, allowing us to fully embrace all the advantages of this approach. In this paper, the turbulence of the foam particles was improved by minimizing the viscous motion of the foam particles without tuning the motion of the underlying water, and as a result, lively foam effects can be expressed.

Additional Visuals: Current Trends of Filling the Screen Space of a Television Shot

This article reveals the phenomenon of multilayer of the television screen space, updated in the 21st century thanks to creative methods and technical means related to the information era. The relevance of the topic under study is based on the permanent changeability of the technologies for creating visual constructs on the screen. The author traces the evolution of the original techniques of supplementing the composition of the shot in a historical context: from the classical caption to the artistic and expressive computer embodiment of graphic or other visual objects, including a simulacrum, corresponding to the properties of the concept of “additional visuals”. During the study, a rigorous analysis of the screen space is carried out when additional visuals pass into the status of augmented reality. In the view of studying the visual component of the television footage, the article draws close attention to the extra-spatial nature of the objects of the expressive compositional structure of the frame, and the variety of presentation of the composition components in the context of the multivisuality of the screen. The vertical frame composition is another subject of this study related to the use of mobile devices with video recording function. The article provides examples of using smartphones with a vertically located screen in video shooting, taking into account not only convenience, but also changes in the visual range, concentrated audience perception of the content. The filling of the screen space reveals new aspects in the construction of multi-valued compositions of the frame. Against this background, further developments in the research field of additional visuals on the television screen are very important. In this regard, this publication may be of interest to specialists in the field of media, as well as a wide range of readers and viewers.

Designing screen layout in multimedia applications through integer programming and metaheuristic

Binding audiovisual content into multimedia applications requires the specification of each media item, including its size and position, to define a screen layout. The multimedia application author must plan the application’s screen layout (ASL), considering a variety of screen sizes where the application shall be executed. An ASL that maximizes the area occupied by media items on the screen is essential, given that screen space is a valuable asset for media broadcasters. In this paper, we introduce the Application Screen Layout Optimization Problem, and present its NP-hardness. Besides, two integer programming formulations and an Iterated Local Search (ILS) metaheuristic are proposed to solve it. The efficiency of the proposed methods is evaluated, showing that the metaheuristic achieves better results and is at least 12 times faster, on average, than the mathematical formulations. Also, the proposed approaches were compared to a layout design algorithm, showing their effectiveness.

Deep Representation of a Normal Map for Screen-Space Fluid Rendering

We propose a novel method for addressing the problem of efficiently generating a highly refined normal map for screen-space fluid rendering. Because the process of filtering the normal map is crucially important to ensure the quality of the final screen-space fluid rendering, we employ a conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN) as a filter that learns a deep normal map representation, thereby refining the low-quality normal map. In particular, we have designed a novel loss function dedicated to refining the normal map information, and we use a specific set of auxiliary features to train the cGAN generator to learn features that are more robust with respect to edge details. Additionally, we constructed a dataset of six different typical scenes to enable effective demonstrations of multitype fluid simulation. Experiments indicated that our generator was able to infer clearer and more detailed features for this dataset than a basic screen-space fluid rendering method. Moreover, in some cases, the results generated by our method were even smoother than those generated by the conventional surface reconstruction method. Our method improves the fluid rendering results via the high-quality normal map while preserving the advantages of the screen-space fluid rendering methods and the traditional surface reconstruction methods, including that of the computation time being independent of the number of simulation particles and the spatial resolution being related only to image resolution.

Stochastic-Depth Ambient Occlusion

Ambient occlusion (AO) is a popular rendering technique that enhances depth perception and realism by darkening locations that are less exposed to ambient light (e.g., corners and creases). In real-time applications, screen-space variants, relying on the depth buffer, are used due to their high performance and good visual quality. However, these only take visible surfaces into account, resulting in inconsistencies, especially during motion. Stochastic-Depth Ambient Occlusion is a novel AO algorithm that accounts for occluded geometry by relying on a stochastic depth map, capturing multiple scene layers per pixel at random. Hereby, we efficiently gather missing information in order to improve upon the accuracy and spatial stability of conventional screen-space approximations, while maintaining real-time performance. Our approach integrates well into existing rendering pipelines and improves the robustness of many different AO techniques, including multi-view solutions.

A Corner-Highlighting Method for Ambient Occlusion

Graphical user experiences are now ubiquitous features, and therefore widespread. Specifically, the computer graphics field and the game industry have been continually favoring the ambient occlusion post-processing method for its superb indirect light approximation and its effectiveness. Nonetheless of its canonical performance, its operation on non-occluded surfaces is often seen redundant and unfavorable. In this paper, we propose a new perspective to handle such issues by highlighting the corners where ambient occlusion is likely to occur. Potential illumination occlusions are highlighted by checking the corners of the surfaces in the screen-space. Our algorithm showed feasibility for renderers to avoid unwanted computations by achieving performance improvements of 15% to 28% acceleration, in comparison to the previous works.

Study of the Principles of Web Design as a Visual Component of Modern Internet Culture.

The article is devoted to the study of effective websites design principles, adherence to which is very important and necessary in the modern information space. The article analyzes scientific research on the above problem and its results. The author defines the concept of usability, and describes its main indicators. The article considers the most important features of the user’s perception of interfaces and formulates the rules of usability through the organization of screen space. It is emphasized that the basic rules of website design are based on knowledge of the human perception mechanisms. Users’ psychophysical processes influence visual perception of screen space. Therefore, one needs to consider the psychology of human perception of the computer, the theory of information transfer, and also human psychophysiology to create highly usable interfaces and achieve effective users’ interactions with websites. All this reduces the cognitive load and time for information search, and meets users’ needs in the most convenient way. In addition, the principles of organizing web text in a way that ensures the best perception of information by the user are defined, in particular: structure, visualization, laconism and clarity. The article reveals the significance of website usability, describes criteria and methods of its assessment. Among the indicators used in website evaluation, the following are highlighted: effectiveness, navigation convenience, memorability. The author describes the methods for evaluating the effectiveness of the website, namely: statistics analysis, collection and analysis of visitors’ opinions, observing users’ actions, engaging users in testing. It is proved that the observance of usability principles results in an increased number of visitors and time they spend on a website, higher conversion rate, etc. The principles described in the article are generalization of the world experience of website design professionals.