SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FAST REAL-TIME RENDERING OF MULTIPLE LIGHT SOURCES

Example embodiments of the present invention include systems and methods for the efficient rendering of multiple light sources, each controlled individually, in a single pass. An example embodiment encodes the light sources in a texture map, such as DXT. Each channel of the multi-channel texture map encodes data associated with a light source. The pixel shader then renders multiple light sources according to the multiple channels of the texture. Additionally, the pixel shader may render multiple textures, and thus render an even greater number of individual light sources. In a further embodiment, the rendering of a plurality of individually controlled light sources is accomplished in a single pass.