cumulerender

Cumulerender is a term used in computer graphics to describe a rendering approach that aggregates information from multiple sampling passes or frames to produce a final image. The idea centers on accumulating per-sample radiance and other scene data over time to achieve progressive refinement, often via an accumulation buffer or per-pixel history. The concept intersects with progressive rendering, temporal accumulation, and denoising techniques.

In practice, cumulerender collects samples from successive frames or passes and composites them into a history buffer. This enables noisy initial results to converge toward a high-quality image, supports real-time or near-real-time global illumination workflows, and can improve anti-aliasing through temporal integration. Implementations may include per-pixel history, exposure control, tone mapping, and optional spatial or temporal denoising to suppress residual noise.

Applications span film and game production pipelines, where artists benefit from progressive refinement, and research contexts exploring lightweight, convergent rendering. Limitations include added latency and memory usage for history buffers, potential motion ghosting when the scene changes rapidly, and the need for robust denoising to avoid smearing. Consistency across frames requires careful handling of camera motion, lighting changes, and color space management.

Relationship and status: Cumulerender describes a family of techniques rather than a single standard algorithm. It is related to path tracing, accumulation rendering, and temporal anti-aliasing, but the exact methods vary by engine and project. The term is used descriptively in discussions of progressive rendering rather than as a formal specification.