High-dynamic-range rendering

A comparison of the standard fixed-aperture rendering (left) with the HDR rendering (right) in the video game Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

High-dynamic-range rendering (HDRR or HDR rendering), also known as high-dynamic-range lighting, is the rendering of computer graphics scenes by using lighting calculations done in high dynamic range (HDR). This allows preservation of details that may be lost due to limiting contrast ratios. Video games and computer-generated movies and special effects benefit from this as it creates more realistic scenes than with more simplistic lighting models.

Graphics processor company Nvidia summarizes the motivation for HDR in three points: bright things can be really bright, dark things can be really dark, and details can be seen in both.[1]

  1. ^ Simon Green and Cem Cebenoyan (2004). "High Dynamic Range Rendering (on the GeForce 6800)" (PDF). GeForce 6 Series. nVidia. p. 3.