Welcome to our interview with Luca Deriu, the creator of Real PBR, a new real-time ray tracing tool. In this exclusive discussion, we delve into the development process, key features, and future plans of Real PBR. With a background in rendering and software development, our guest has brought to life a sophisticated tool aimed at advancing rendering capabilities. Join us as we explore the technical aspects, challenges, and strategic vision behind RealPBR, providing valuable insights into the evolving landscape of real-time rendering technology.

Luca Deriu

Programmer and 3D Artist,
Developer of Real PBR, Real HDR, Real IES

Could you share a bit about your background and what sparked your interest in rendering and software development, leading to the creation of Real PBR?

I am a long-time passionate enthusiast of 3D computer graphics. I was born in 1981 and started experimenting with 3D tools back in high school, around the age of 16. Coming from a small town in northern Italy, it was rare to find people who shared the same passion, and getting my hands on professional software back then was even more challenging.

The only way to access these tools at the time was through the infamous “Twilight Warez” compilations, packed with all sorts of software ready to be installed on Windows 95/98. It was a golden era—no monetization stress, just pure curiosity and experimentation. And in a way, I consider myself lucky to have experienced that freedom.

I still remember the moment I first launched 3ds Max 2. It was a game-changer for me. The idea of creating 3D worlds from scratch was fascinating, and from that point on, I was hooked. As a teenager, I was deeply drawn to technology—videogames, animated movies, software, digital music—basically anything that involved creativity and code. My parents (and most of my teachers) didn’t exactly share my enthusiasm, but that never stopped me.

Along the way, I stumbled upon Microsoft Visual Basic, then Macromedia Director, Flash, and so many other emerging tools. The internet as we know it today didn’t exist yet, so my best resources were thick printed manuals. Saturdays were my favorite day of the week—not just for browsing the bookstore, but also because that’s when I got my weekly allowance, which meant a trip to the arcade and the videogame store. My Amiga was never starving for new titles!

I started coding small tools to help me with school assignments, then moved on to micro game experiments with DarkBasic and BlitzBasic. From that moment on, I never really stopped. Fast forward to today, and that same passion still drives me. Real PBR is the natural evolution of that curiosity in a real-time path-tracing rendering tool.

Can you explain how Real PBR enhances the rendering process compared to traditional methods? What sets it apart from other real-time ray tracing software?

Well not much, in the sense that the final output is an image made by pixels. What may be quite new in Real PBR is that traditional real-time rendering relies heavily on rasterization, combined with screen-space techniques and approximations to simulate realistic lighting. While this approach is efficient, it often struggles with accurate global illumination, soft shadows, caustics, and true-to-life reflections.

What sets RealPBR apart is its fully path-traced rendering pipeline, meaning that every pixel is calculated based on real physical light interactions. This allows for realistic lighting, perfect reflections, and accurate materials without the need for faking effects like screen-space reflections or baked lighting. The result is a rendering tool that delivers high-fidelity visuals without the usual limitations of traditional real-time methods.

Also Real PBR is a standalone tool and not a plug-in so it can be launched and used with any 3D mesh exported from a DCC. Also, it is free to use and is built to be accessible, giving users full control without unnecessary overhead. It’s a tool for architects and designers who want high-quality, real-time path tracing without restrictions.

Can you walk us through the development process of Real PBR, from concept to release?

Well, I may sound quite practical here, but the development process is mostly based on trial and error, and on features that I’d want to use myself in production. I start with basic hypotheses like, “How can I implement this feature? How can I make it work?” Then I break the complexity down into smaller pieces and cross-check them with something I’ve already made or that has a similar approach. In a lucky scenario, a few tweaks to something I’ve already done will give me a proper result. In the worst-case scenario, I’m just doing guesswork, step by step.

These days, there’s also AI support in the process, but so far, it doesn’t always deliver great results when things get really complex. It’s okay for brainstorming and reasoning through things, but if in the past I could write code in, say, three attempts, now with AI, it takes me at least five. It’s still a fun journey though.

What are some of the key features and functionalities of Real PBR that users can benefit from?

One of the main goals behind RealPBR is to make real-time path tracing accessible, efficient, and visually stunning. To achieve this, I’ve packed it with features that help users get high-quality results without unnecessary complexity.
For starters, RealPBR supports fully path-traced rendering, meaning no faked reflections or baked lighting—everything is physically accurate, which results in lifelike global illumination, realistic soft shadows, and true reflections. To keep performance in check, I’ve integrated NVIDIA DLSS, which uses AI to upscale frames, boosting performance while maintaining high image quality.

Another key aspect is the physically correct camera system, where exposure values match real-world settings. This means artists can light their scenes naturally, without struggling with arbitrary values. Speaking of realism, I’ve also implemented depth of field with physical focus, so users can achieve professional cinematic effects directly in the engine.

Performance and flexibility are also crucial. I’ve optimized memory usage to handle complex scenes more efficiently, and I recently increased the triangle limit per mesh to 44 million, allowing for highly detailed models (if the artist VRAM can handle such an amount of polygons per mesh, of course). For ease of use, I’ve improved camera controls, including support for gamepad navigation, which makes scene composition more intuitive.
On the artistic side, users now have access to glow post-processing effects, a basic tonemapping system, and a watermark-free rendering mode, so they can export high-quality images without restrictions.

How does Real PBR handle complex scenes and lighting scenarios in real-time rendering?

Believe it or not, Real PBR is built on a custom Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP) in Unity, so the rendering core behind the scenes is Unity itself. I decided to base it on Unity because of my experience and my daily game development routine. Unity is generally seen just as a game engine, but the cool thing is that back in 2017, they detached the renderer from the editor (a detachment that was pushed even further with the introduction of the packages). This means the renderer is one thing, and the editor is another, which gives you the flexibility to open up their SRP, study it, and derive the essential features you need.

This approach allowed me to start from a solid foundation rather than diving straight into the lowest-level graphics libraries like DirectX or OpenGL in Visual Studio. It gave me a more flexible starting point, with an emphasis on Compute Shaders, which are essential for handling complex real-time lighting and geometry in Real PBR.

What motivated you to release Real PBR as a free public beta, and what do you hope to achieve during this phase?

Real PBR is a project I work on in my free time, without deadlines or pressure. I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to achieve, but beyond the final result, I want to enjoy every part of the development process.
I’m infinitely smaller than Adobe, Autodesk or any other software development corporate, so putting a price tag on such an ambitious tool might send the wrong message to users discovering the project. I want to keep things grounded and present myself for what I truly am: a professional with decades of experience using 3D software, now taking the next step toward creating those tools.
Charging for something so home-made would only add unnecessary stress. Instead, this public beta is a great opportunity for exploration, improvement, and receiving feedback from the community, without the weight of commercial expectations.
As for the future? I hope to keep the same spirit, just with a little less solitude in the development and testing process.

Can you discuss any challenges or surprises you’ve encountered during the beta phase, and how you’ve addressed them?

ANSWER TEXT HERE. THIS IS A PLACEHOLDER TEXT. Everything is very simple and banal. In short, this is the story of a teenager who, at school, fell in love with science in general and astronomy in particular, who met with Photoshop at a technical college because he wanted to improve the quality of photographs (still on tape!) of the night sky after astronomical observations. It’s also the story of a student of astrophysics who first learned 3DSMax, and then mastered Maya, because he wanted to visualize the obtained observation data and generally make presentations at scientific conferences more beautiful. And then there was a cruel disappointment in the bureaucracy of science, the stage of student freelance, leaving graduate school. So in 2008, I came to the archiviz studio as a junior 3D Artist, went through all the stages of the career ladder in advertising, managed to be a supervisor on several animation projects, and this year I created my own, so far, virtual studio.

As RealPBR is continuously evolving, what are some of the key features that users can expect in future updates?

ANSWER TEXT HERE. THIS IS A PLACEHOLDER TEXT. Everything is very simple and banal. In short, this is the story of a teenager who, at school, fell in love with science in general and astronomy in particular, who met with Photoshop at a technical college because he wanted to improve the quality of photographs (still on tape!) of the night sky after astronomical observations. It’s also the story of a student of astrophysics who first learned 3DSMax, and then mastered Maya, because he wanted to visualize the obtained observation data and generally make presentations at scientific conferences more beautiful. And then there was a cruel disappointment in the bureaucracy of science, the stage of student freelance, leaving graduate school. So in 2008, I came to the archiviz studio as a junior 3D Artist, went through all the stages of the career ladder in advertising, managed to be a supervisor on several animation projects, and this year I created my own, so far, virtual studio.

How do you gather and incorporate user feedback into the development process of RealPBR?

ANSWER TEXT HERE. THIS IS A PLACEHOLDER TEXT. Everything is very simple and banal. In short, this is the story of a teenager who, at school, fell in love with science in general and astronomy in particular, who met with Photoshop at a technical college because he wanted to improve the quality of photographs (still on tape!) of the night sky after astronomical observations. It’s also the story of a student of astrophysics who first learned 3DSMax, and then mastered Maya, because he wanted to visualize the obtained observation data and generally make presentations at scientific conferences more beautiful. And then there was a cruel disappointment in the bureaucracy of science, the stage of student freelance, leaving graduate school. So in 2008, I came to the archiviz studio as a junior 3D Artist, went through all the stages of the career ladder in advertising, managed to be a supervisor on several animation projects, and this year I created my own, so far, virtual studio.

What has been the initial response from users since the launch of RealPBR, and how does it influence the direction of development?

ANSWER TEXT HERE. THIS IS A PLACEHOLDER TEXT. Everything is very simple and banal. In short, this is the story of a teenager who, at school, fell in love with science in general and astronomy in particular, who met with Photoshop at a technical college because he wanted to improve the quality of photographs (still on tape!) of the night sky after astronomical observations. It’s also the story of a student of astrophysics who first learned 3DSMax, and then mastered Maya, because he wanted to visualize the obtained observation data and generally make presentations at scientific conferences more beautiful. And then there was a cruel disappointment in the bureaucracy of science, the stage of student freelance, leaving graduate school. So in 2008, I came to the archiviz studio as a junior 3D Artist, went through all the stages of the career ladder in advertising, managed to be a supervisor on several animation projects, and this year I created my own, so far, virtual studio.

Are there any particular areas of focus or priorities for feature implementation as RealPBR moves towards a stable release?

ANSWER TEXT HERE. THIS IS A PLACEHOLDER TEXT. Everything is very simple and banal. In short, this is the story of a teenager who, at school, fell in love with science in general and astronomy in particular, who met with Photoshop at a technical college because he wanted to improve the quality of photographs (still on tape!) of the night sky after astronomical observations. It’s also the story of a student of astrophysics who first learned 3DSMax, and then mastered Maya, because he wanted to visualize the obtained observation data and generally make presentations at scientific conferences more beautiful. And then there was a cruel disappointment in the bureaucracy of science, the stage of student freelance, leaving graduate school. So in 2008, I came to the archiviz studio as a junior 3D Artist, went through all the stages of the career ladder in advertising, managed to be a supervisor on several animation projects, and this year I created my own, so far, virtual studio.

How do you balance adding new features with maintaining stability and performance in RealPBR?

ANSWER TEXT HERE. THIS IS A PLACEHOLDER TEXT. Everything is very simple and banal. In short, this is the story of a teenager who, at school, fell in love with science in general and astronomy in particular, who met with Photoshop at a technical college because he wanted to improve the quality of photographs (still on tape!) of the night sky after astronomical observations. It’s also the story of a student of astrophysics who first learned 3DSMax, and then mastered Maya, because he wanted to visualize the obtained observation data and generally make presentations at scientific conferences more beautiful. And then there was a cruel disappointment in the bureaucracy of science, the stage of student freelance, leaving graduate school. So in 2008, I came to the archiviz studio as a junior 3D Artist, went through all the stages of the career ladder in advertising, managed to be a supervisor on several animation projects, and this year I created my own, so far, virtual studio.

Can you share any insights into the roadmap for RealPBR beyond the beta phase, including potential monetization models or future pricing strategies?

ANSWER TEXT HERE. THIS IS A PLACEHOLDER TEXT. Everything is very simple and banal. In short, this is the story of a teenager who, at school, fell in love with science in general and astronomy in particular, who met with Photoshop at a technical college because he wanted to improve the quality of photographs (still on tape!) of the night sky after astronomical observations. It’s also the story of a student of astrophysics who first learned 3DSMax, and then mastered Maya, because he wanted to visualize the obtained observation data and generally make presentations at scientific conferences more beautiful. And then there was a cruel disappointment in the bureaucracy of science, the stage of student freelance, leaving graduate school. So in 2008, I came to the archiviz studio as a junior 3D Artist, went through all the stages of the career ladder in advertising, managed to be a supervisor on several animation projects, and this year I created my own, so far, virtual studio.

Finally, what message would you like to convey to users who are considering trying out RealPBR during its beta stage?

ANSWER TEXT HERE. THIS IS A PLACEHOLDER TEXT. Everything is very simple and banal. In short, this is the story of a teenager who, at school, fell in love with science in general and astronomy in particular, who met with Photoshop at a technical college because he wanted to improve the quality of photographs (still on tape!) of the night sky after astronomical observations. It’s also the story of a student of astrophysics who first learned 3DSMax, and then mastered Maya, because he wanted to visualize the obtained observation data and generally make presentations at scientific conferences more beautiful. And then there was a cruel disappointment in the bureaucracy of science, the stage of student freelance, leaving graduate school. So in 2008, I came to the archiviz studio as a junior 3D Artist, went through all the stages of the career ladder in advertising, managed to be a supervisor on several animation projects, and this year I created my own, so far, virtual studio.