+1 - sorry, I do this stuff all day, so am used to the slang :)
Fresnel also effects just reflection as well - it's the reason you don't often (depending on the material) see much of a reflection head-on on a shiny surface, but do at a glancing angle (glass or car paint for example).
> the reason you don't often see much of a reflection head-on on a shiny surface, but do at a glancing angle
Ah! I've noticed shiny things in real life that made me think "if I saw this in a game, I would think the reflection was overdone." I think what you've mentioned there is the key. The reflections I remember from early 2000s video games seem overdone because they're reflective at all angles. In real life, the shiny marble floor is only really mirror-like at shallow angles, when looking head-on it only appears glossy.
I recently implemented Fresnel reflection in my mobile game engine; it's one of those things which makes an objectively small difference but a subjectively large one.
- VFX is just "visual effects", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_effects.
- Fresnel might be a reference to "Fresnel refraction", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_diffraction.
- IOR is of course "index of refraction", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractive_index.
- BSDF references "bi-directional scattering distribution functions", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidirectional_scattering_distri....
- Path tracing is a Monte Carlo method of rendering images with global illumination, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_tracing.
- SSS means "sub-surface scattering", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsurface_scattering.