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nVIDIA Shading Rasterizer (NSR) One of the major 3D components of the GeForce4 MX series, the nVIDIA Shading Rasterizer makes realistic material properties possible through per-pixel shading effects. Now all later generation nVIDIA GPUs deliver high-quality, dynamic per-pixel shading, making complex scenes rich with exquisite detail. Features such as per-pixel bump mapping can be utilized to produce a more dramatic visual effect, offering 256 gradiations of reflectivity. NSR greatly reduces texture bandwidth needed to achieve these realistic effects by no longer requiring texture maps to render light in many of today's games. This rendering technology is strongly supported in Microsoft's DirectX 8.
Per-Pixel Shading & Lighting Per-Pixel Shading & Lighting allows designers to calculate lighting effects at the pixel level, greatly increasing the precision and realism of the scene. With nVIDIA's GeForce4, game developers can program custom per-pixel effects. Examples include rippling water surface simulations with sunlight reflecting off it, realistic objects shadows and grain within a board of wood.
The animated example above illustrates the advanced use of per-pixel shading. The figure with nVIDIA's Shading Rasterizer exceeds the other without NSR in clarity and realism. The detailed texture of the creature's facial features comes alive; the definition of the nostrils and the furrowed brow are palpable. Per-Pixel Bump Mapping Bump Mapping is a shading technique using multiple textures and lighting effects to simulate wrinkled or bumped surfaces. Bump mapping is useful because it can give a three dimensional image the appearance of roughness and ridginess without increasing the geometric complexity. Some common types of bump mapping include:
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