My project explores the effectiveness of advanced real-time sampling techniques for ray-traced direct and indirect illumination. To investigate these existing methods, I am using my vulkan 3d renderer, which I began building a bit over a year ago.

My research focuses on evaluating ReSTIR for direct illumination and DDGI for global illumination. A major component of this work is exploring the unification of both algorithms. By treating DDGI probes as virtual light sources within the ReSTIR framework, I am testing how well this combined approach optimizes complex lighting workloads.

Because these complex, probability-based algorithms naturally introduce visual noise, I integrate NVIDIA DLSS Ray Reconstruction to assess its capability as the primary neural denoiser. Finally, I developed a reference path-traced GI solution. This provides a ground truth, allowing me to accurately compare the performance, efficiency, and visual stability of the real-time hybrid implementation.

Dissertation Project