Blur effect on live scene?

[Mike Hearn]

Yes, it can be done, and I have done this in my app. Take a look here:

https://github.com/vinumeris/lighthouse/blob/master/client/src/main/java/lighthouse/Main.java#L474

I do it by taking a snapshot, then blurring that, then cross-fading, then
replacing it with a live blur effect once done. I found this gave better
frame rates than the simpler way of just animating the blur property of a
blur effect, with very little visual degradation.

Be aware that this won't work well on software pipelines, so I use some
internal API to detect that and use a lighter weight effect instead.

You can download a binary of the app from
https://www.vinumeris.com/lighthouse if you want to see the effect in
action (press one of the buttons at the top to trigger it).