Glow Effects in Graphic Cards

Modern video cards often support multiple effect shaders. These shaders are what enable the video card to render different effects such as reflections, curved surfaces, textures and glowing lights.

Bloom Effect

When you see a bright sky or light in a video game or 3D-rendered scene, this is more often than not a Bloom effect. A video card will render copies of a frame that the player is viewing. The copied frame modifies to show only bright areas of the scene. Next, the video card reapplies the modified frame over the normal scene buffer.

When combined, the modified frame looks blurred and bright. This effect will interact with other parts of the scene and often appear as soft lighting.

Bloom versus HDR (High Dynamic Range)

Developers often use Bloom to mimic the effects of true HDR. Bloom is less stressful to video hardware than HDR.

HDR Overview

Photographers and developers use HDR to show off finer detail in lights and shadows on high resolution images. The effect comes close to how images look in 3D films. Many newer video cards and video games support both true HDR and Bloom effects.

References

• Wordiq.com: Full-Screen Effects