[Bf-committers] A contribution

[Dan Brown]

Campbell Barton wrote:

> I think a 16 bit greyscale PNG would be the go-
> Blender can load 16 bt png's (tho only as 8 bits for displaying) so it 
> wouldent be odd.
> (Blender would be able to read the file it outputted)
> - Cam

Most modern games will always avoid using a 16-bit depth buffer if a higher 
precision is available. The main reason is that some nasty artifacts can appear 
if you have even a moderately sized range from front to back. Also with hardware 
pixel shaders effects such as Deferred Shading (adding dynamic 
lighting/shadowing to a pre-rendered image) the depth buffer is operated on 
directly and more artifacts could be introduced if the zbuffer isn't an accurate 
depiction of the image.

Having a depth buffer loadable as an image would be useful as a check that it is 
working, but I don't know if there is any use for a visual version once it is done.

Dan