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Subsurface Scattering

Almost every material in the real world is slightly translucent: light enters the surface, scatters inside, and leaves somewhere else. Simulating that accurately is too expensive for real time, so games rely on approximations.

Below are the techniques I implemented in Unity, from a fast precomputed thickness map to a depth-based method that measures thickness at runtime.

Approximating Translucency

Approximating Translucency

Almost every material in the real world is slightly translucent, this means that light enters the material and is scattered around and then exits the surface.