Tiny3D - HDR & Bloom / Post-Processing [N64 Homebrew]

A technical demonstration of HDR and bloom post-processing effects running on real Nintendo 64 hardware using custom microcode.

Some new updates on tiny3d, besides performance improvements and bugfixes, two new example projects where added. This one shown here demonstrates a basic HDR and bloom effect, using actual post-processing. The HDR works by artificially limiting color depth to gain range. Usually games render into RGBA16 which already has only 5 bits of color depth per channel. By rendering into RGBA32 instead, we get 8 bits. The scene is then rendered darker than usual, so that in the end full white would only be 1/8th of the brightness. This means the final color in the buffer only uses 5bits, exactly the same as RGBA16. Everything beyond that is the HDR part as it exceeds what RGBA16 could display. Note that the final buffer displayed by VI here is still RGBA16. A custom ucode is then responsible for transferring the color data over into the final RGBA16 buffer, which also gives it the chance to scale the colors up and down as needed. This allows for controlling the exposure of the scene. Bloom works by creating a downsampled version of the framebuffer (here 1/4th of the size). Which is then blurred in one or more passes. The final result is passed into the existing HDR ucode, which will add it ontop of the HDR color. Downscaling can be done via RSP or RDP, blurring is RSP only and can also apply a threshold to ignore darker colors. The amount of bloom added in the last step can also be controlled. ______________ A pre-built ROM is available in the discord in "showcase-updates". Note that it requires an accurate emulator like Ares, or real hardware. More information in the N64Brew discord: discord.gg/WqFgNWf Repo: github.com/HailToDodongo/tiny3d ______________ 00:00 - Space-Ship scene 02:24 - UV-Gen & Backgrounds 04:03 - Magic scene / Particles 06:10 - Retro-Skybox / Point-light ______________ Music: Between The Spaces - The Soundlings Badlands - ELPHNT Radio Tower of Orphenn - John Oestmann Rhythm and Booze - Twin Musicom