Image based lighting

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This teapot was illuminated using an HDR environment map of St. Peter's Cathedral. Lighting on this level offers unprecedented realism, as can be seen.

Image based lighting is a global illumination method used in 3D photo realistic rendering in which an image is used to light the scene in conjunction with traditional light models. Image based lighting, or IBL, generally uses High dynamic range (HDR) images, although LDR can be used, and provides a larger range of light sampling then can be obtained through traditional light models. LDR, low dynamic range, works similar to HDR, but offers a much smaller range of lighting information.

Almost every modern renderer offers some type of image based lighting. However, the terminology used in their application might be slightly different.

Image based lighting is also starting to show up in game technology since most game consoles and computers have vastly improved in terms of available resources available for rendering.