The Release 185 GeForce graphics drivers introduce a new technology to the NVIDA Control Panel under Manage 3D Settings: Ambient Occlusion.
Ambient Occlusion adds realism to scenes by reducing the intensity of ambient lights on surfaces blocked by surrounding objects. It enhances depth perception by providing a soft shadow effect for objects based on their placement in the scene.
Standard lighting models compute the color of a surface based on its properties and the lights in a scene. Objects that are in the path of a light cast shadows, otherwise, their presence does not affect the lighting of other objects. Ambient occlusion improves this model by accounting for the dimming caused by objects that block out ambient light. An example of this is the junction where a wall and a ceiling meet; while no direct shadows are cast, the corner nevertheless appears darker. Ambient occlusion simulates this phenomenon, along with all other cases where objects are close enough to block out ambient light.
(scroll down to see more examples)
Ambient occlusion is enabled via application profiles in the NVIDIA Control Panel. Application profiles account for the different rendering needs of each game, and enable ambient occlusion accordingly.
Currently the following 22 titles are enabled with ambient occlusion profiles:
