To add DDGI lighting to an Android app, the 2022 tutorial by Jackson Jiang demonstrates integrating Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) Core Scene Kit’s DDGI plugin with a Vulkan renderer. The flow is to supply scene and camera data, configure a probe volume, update the plugin’s irradiance outputs while rendering, and add the resulting lighting to your shading. This is a specific plugin integration—not a universal DDGI recipe—and the tutorial does not confirm the plugin’s current availability or compatibility with today’s Android and Vulkan toolchains.
What DDGI does—and what it does not
Dynamic diffuse global illumination (DDGI) estimates indirect diffuse light: light that reaches a surface after bouncing elsewhere in the scene. In NVIDIA’s documented implementation, a volume of probes gathers radiance and distance information; probe data updates over time, and the renderer interpolates diffuse irradiance for shaded points. NVIDIA also describes statistical occlusion intended to help address light leaks associated with simpler probe systems. Those are details of NVIDIA RTXGI, not a description of the internal implementation of the HMS Scene Kit plugin.
DDGI is not a complete lighting solution. NVIDIA’s RTXGI Algorithms documentation says it is best used for the diffuse irradiance component of the full lighting equation. Its probe-based signal is low-frequency, so it does not capture fine radiometric or geometric detail on its own. A renderer may need complementary methods for effects such as high-frequency occlusion.
How the Android/Vulkan plugin workflow fits together
Jiang’s tutorial describes passing Vulkan renderer resources and scene information to the Scene Kit plugin, then using its output textures during shading. The sequence below reflects that example; other DDGI implementations can have different APIs, resources, and responsibilities.
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- Initialize Vulkan and the plugin. Provide the Vulkan device and queue data needed by the plugin API.
- Create output textures. Set up textures for irradiance and for normal/depth data, then pass their Vulkan image descriptions to the plugin. The tutorial notes that lower-resolution output can improve rendering performance at the cost of less-clean edges or detail.
- Supply scene inputs. Prepare and pass mesh, material, light, and camera information, along with output resolution.
- Configure the probe volume. Set its origin, spacing, and probe count, then prepare the plugin.
- Refresh inputs and render. When meshes, lights, or the camera change, update the corresponding inputs and call the plugin render function to update its textures. If you skip this render after a scene change, the outputs still reflect the earlier state.
- Use the irradiance in shading. Add the plugin’s irradiance contribution to the shading result. For reduced-resolution output, the tutorial’s example uses normal/depth-aware bilateral upsampling.
Scene setup and performance guidance in the tutorial
The tutorial’s recommendations are specific to its mobile plugin use case. They are author guidance, not universal limits or measured performance results.
- Cover the scene: Center the probe origin in the scene and configure the volume to include the whole scene.
- Reduce wall leaks: Jiang recommends walls thicker than the probe density. For walls represented as planes, he suggests using two single-sided planes.
- Keep mobile inputs modest: The tutorial suggests passing meshes with no more than 50,000 vertices and using probe dimensions up to 10 × 10 × 10. These figures are recommendations for that example, not benchmarks or general DDGI caps.
- Choose output resolution deliberately: Lower-resolution GI output can help performance, but trades away edge and detail quality; the example compensates with normal/depth-aware bilateral upsampling.
How the NVIDIA RTXGI implementation differs
NVIDIA’s RTXGI SDK is a separate implementation, with its own integration model. Its documentation describes a DDGIVolume as a regular grid of probes holding irradiance and distance data. For runtime updates, the host renderer remains responsible for ray-tracing acceleration structures, shader tables, pipeline state, tracing rays, and gathering radiance. The SDK handles tasks including probe-data blending and border updates, classification, and relocation; the host queries probe irradiance for shading.
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NVIDIA documents several practical trade-offs for RTXGI: probe data accumulates over time, so lighting response has latency; the signal misses fine detail; and storing probes can consume substantial memory in large environments. Its documentation also describes loading precomputed probe data on platforms without runtime GPU ray tracing. Do not assume these particular requirements or trade-offs apply identically to the HMS plugin.
Choosing an implementation path
These options target different renderers and are not supported by a same-scene benchmark in the cited documentation. Compare them by engine, runtime requirements, who owns probe tracing, dynamic versus precomputed operation, scene budget, and the need for additional techniques to capture fine detail.
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| Option | Target and integration | Runtime and responsibilities | Evidence and caveats |
|---|---|---|---|
| HMS Core Scene Kit DDGI plugin | Android/Vulkan integration described in Jiang’s tutorial. | The tutorial passes Vulkan resources and scene inputs to the plugin and uses its output textures. The cited page does not establish the plugin’s current package availability, support, or compatibility. | Mobile guidance includes meshes up to 50,000 vertices and probe dimensions up to 10 × 10 × 10; these are recommendations, not measured limits. |
| NVIDIA RTXGI DDGI SDK | Renderer SDK integration with a regular probe volume. | Runtime updates rely on host-side ray-tracing infrastructure and probe-ray tracing; NVIDIA also documents a precomputed-data workflow for platforms without runtime GPU ray tracing. | RTXGI-specific documentation describes temporal response latency, low-frequency detail, and probe-memory costs. Do not transfer these claims automatically to another plugin. |
| Unreal Engine Lumen | Engine-native dynamic GI and reflections system; Unreal Engine 5.8 documentation describes it as the engine default. | Use the Unreal engine’s own system rather than either DDGI integration API described above. | It is an engine-specific alternative, not the same plugin or algorithm API. The cited documentation does not provide a controlled performance comparison with the other options. |
What to verify before building against the tutorial
The tutorial was published in 2022. It explains its integration procedure but does not establish whether the Scene Kit DDGI package is still available, supported, or compatible with current Android and Vulkan toolchains. Confirm those details against the package and toolchain documentation for the versions you plan to use before committing to this route.
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