Ben Beilharz
@ben.graphics
PhD on physically based (differentiable) rendering and material appearance modeling/perception @tsawallis.bsky.social's Perception Lab. I also build my own renderer and enjoy participating in CTFs.
I am moving over to codeberg.org in the coming days. Maybe you should do the same. I'll mirror to GitHub for the time being.
Codeberg.org
Codeberg is a non-profit community-led organization that aims to help free and open source projects prosper by giving them a safe and friendly home.
codeberg.org
Happy to announce that MRD got accepted by the Journal of Vision (marks the first submission of my phd). Thanks to all editors and reviewers making the paper better over time. If you don't want to wait for the official JoV version, I updated the preprint & repo with the latest code and results.
Ben Beilharz@ben.graphics · 6mo agoSorry for the wait (been to China for 4 weeks between the years), but I finally managed to update the pre-print with more results and the code is now also available on: github.com/ag-perceptio... If you run into issues, let me know.
We got rogue AI before GTA6. Three 0-days in a weekend. Where's my blackwall? www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2KC...
Did an AI Really Hack Hugging Face?
YouTube video by LiveOverflow
youtube.com
SIGGRAPH 2026 links: blog.selfshadow.com/2026/07/26/s.... I'll continue to add to the list as more things show up online.
SIGGRAPH 2026 Links
blog.selfshadow.com
It is fucking horrendous what happened today at the Berlin Pride Parade. Kinda sucks that hate progresses quicker than tolerance and acceptance. Currently only German news: www.tagesschau.de/inland/gesel... TL;DR some sicko drove into a group of people after the demonstration. 1 dead person.
Berliner CSD abgebrochen - mutmaßlich Fahrzeug in Menschenmenge gefahren
Der Berliner Christopher Street Day ist abgebrochen worden. Laut Polizei ist mutmaßlich ein Fahrzeug in eine Menschenmenge gefahren, mehrere Menschen seien verletzt.
tagesschau.de
We actually get to witness Nvidia open sourcing their Neural Appearance Models in this lifetime. Thanks for finally dropping the guesswork reimplementing all of that. github.com/NVlabs/neura... Their new SIGGRAPH is also out: research.nvidia.com/labs/rtr/pub...
GitHub - NVlabs/neuralappearance
Contribute to NVlabs/neuralappearance development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
After the neural material/shading talks at EGSR, I was wondering if there's a need for a package to facilitate this type of research. It would be nice to have a package with reusable building blocks and a set of reimplementations to benchmark against. This is currently what I am working on. 1/5
Just wrapped up implementing ボンド's path space API. Previously, I had a loop that constructed the path incrementally without storing the vertices. Now, the whole path is created at once and then evaluated. While this is still a unidirectional case, it would enable me to implement BDPT next.
Just seeing that @guerrilla.bsky.social has a new tab in their nav bar pointing to the Decima engine: www.guerrilla-games.com/decima I don't want to hypothesise, but if that means that the engine is being released at one point, we could see serious competition on the market for UE, Unity and Godot.
We create awe-inspiring worlds - Guerrilla
Guerrilla is one of Europe's leading game companies and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe. We started in 2003, and have pushed the boundaries of technical and artistic...
guerrilla-games.com
Alan's (@demofox.bsky.social) blog post is what could solve a lot of anxiety for new graphics people: blog.demofox.org/2026/07/01/w...
What To Learn To Be A Real Time Graphics Programmer
I get asked fairly often what people need to know to be hireable as a graphics programmer. I figured it was time to make a page to link instead of re-typing it each time. We are in a strange time w…
blog.demofox.org
#EGSR26 has come to an end, and I am sad it is already over. Tons of interesting chats, nice, approachable people, and overall just a great experience. Thanks to the organisers for making this possible; looking forward to next year in Lugano! My highlights: 1/5
For years we have been overwhelmed by the volume of code contributions we have to review, especially from new contributors. AI has made the problem much worse. That's why we are taking steps to reduce the burden on maintainers while still welcoming new contributors: godotengine.org/article/cont...
Changes to our Contribution Policies – Godot Engine
Godot is growing fast, so here is how we are dealing with the huge increase in contributions.
godotengine.org
I'm excited to share the open-source release of hdMitsuba, a USD Hydra delegate for the Mitsuba 3 renderer. By leveraging the Hydra API, this project brings Mitsuba directly into OpenUSD workflows. The GIF below shows interactive rendering within usdview. 🧵
I am excited to announce Dr.Jit 1.4 and Mitsuba 3.9 which now feature GPU-accelerated compute/ray tracing on Apple Silicon. Significant optimizations in both projects accelerate tracing/code generation ~2x. They generate better code and have faster Python bindings.🧵
embree goes brrrr... (so yes, just refactored my acceleration structure into its own plugin, so I can easily swap out different backends).
One nice thing about having the interactive part of the renderer done is having fun with materials. Implemented a couple of diffuse models recently: Lambert, Oren Nayar, EON, d'Eon 21 fast, d'Eon 21 full model
Made ボンド interactive! Some AOV/debug views included. In the process, I also included OIDN, which runs during "interactive mode" on the beauty plate. In render mode, it runs after the final sample. Convenience: Would be to be able to pause and resume from a checkpoint. 1/3
Went back to C++ and got stuff done on my renderer, which I officially call now: ボンド (because Bond in Spy x Family is the best doggo spy-x-family.fandom.com/wiki/Bond_Fo...). I implemented the preview window, in which we accumulate the samples in a framebuffer and draw for each updated tile. 1/3
The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by ANY FOREIGN NATIONAL, WHETHER INSIDE OR OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING FOREIGN NATIONAL ANTHROPIC EMPLOYEES. www.anthropic.com/news/fable-m... 1/n
Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5
The US government has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States.
anthropic.com
It is an understatement how much "fun" in your tooling can drive your motivation to get stuff done. I like C++, but sometimes writing it in my free time can feel very demanding. I started writing Zig last week, and it saves me from a lot of headaches that C has. Zig is literally: WYSIWYG. 1/n
Happy to announce that after VSS, I will be giving another talk this year @ecvp.bsky.social. In my talk, "Applications of Physically Based Differentiable Rendering in Vision Science", I'm going to talk about the challenges and potential of PBDR in vision science, framed in our experiences. #ECVP26
What is upppp!? AION 2 announcement for September this year. And Guild Wars 3 for next year's fall. 😱 Seems like I will finally get another life span as a spiritmaster in the sequel in my first ever MMO. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ_z... www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITPz...
[AION 2] | Launch Reveal Trailer
YouTube video by AION 2 Official
youtube.com
Zig Hydra delegate is up and running. To be fair, it looks "better" than the Rust solution, but that is probably me writing non-idiomatic Rust (not that I claim I am proficient in Zig either).
Ben Beilharz@ben.graphics · 2mo agoAfter reading www.janwalter.org/jekyll/rende... I wanted to write a general @openusd.bsky.social Hydra delegate bridge that other languages can bind to. After a couple of weeks, I finally have two tests up and running: Jan Walter's pbrt-rs and a custom Rust render pass. 1/n
I'm annoyed @patagonia.com. If you start suing people who are environmentalists, activists, and getting people off-screen by encouraging them to go on a hike, you are very wrong. I can already smell Yvon's disappointment. You can do better. Drop the lawsuit. www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...
Patagonia sues drag queen Pattie Gonia for trademark infringement
Outdoor clothing company is suing US environmentalist drag performer for $1 plus legal fees, claiming ‘we wish we didn’t have to do this’
theguardian.com
