Thread by @tylermorganwall

1/6‼️New #rayrender update (v0.25.0)! This update brings `render_ao()`, a function that renders scenes using ambient occlusion. AO is useful when you want to represent a 3D scene but don't want harsh shadows.

Here's the JWST (@NASAWebb) Telescope, rendered with AO in #RStats:

2/6 You can either render w/ pure AO (B&W), or keep the diffuse colors in the model. Keeping colors allows you to highlight certain parts of your scene.

This technique is widely used: check out this NYT article on the Tulsa Race massacre.

nytimes.com/interactive/20…

3/6 Why add AO? It's super useful and widely used in journalism! Once you start looking, you see it everywhere.

Examples:

washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/…

nytimes.com/interactive/20…

nytimes.com/interactive/20…

4/6 So I felt like it was a good addition to the premier 3D dataviz ecosystem in R*

*the #rayverse, obviously :)

5/6 Here's a link to the code that produced the JWST animation:

gist.github.com/tylermorganwal…

And rayrender's github:

github.com/tylermorganwal…

6/6 And here's the pkgdown site with rayrender's documention:

rayrender.net

Enjoy!