Practical Rendering of Multiple Scattering Effects in Participating Media

Volumetric light transport effects are significant for many materials like skin, smoke, clouds, snow or water. In particular, one must consider the multiple scattering of light within the volume. While it is possible to simulate such media using volumetric Monte Carlo or finite element techniques, those methods are very computationally expensive. On the other hand, simple analytic models have so far been limited to homogeneous and/or optically dense media and cannot be easily extended to include strongly directional effects and visibility in spatially varying volumes. We present a practical method for rendering volumetric effects that include multiple scattering. We show an expression for the point spread function that captures blurring of radiance due to multiple scattering. We develop a general framework for incorporating this point spread function, while considering inhomogeneous media - this framework could also be used with other analytic multiple scattering models.

[1]  N. Max.  Efficient light propagation for multiple anisotropic volume scattering , 1995 .

[2]  Hagen Kleinert.  QUANTUM MECHANICS AND PATH INTEGRALS IN SPACES WITH CURVATURE AND TORSION , 1989 .

[3]  François X. Sillion,et al.  Global Illumination Techniques for the Simulation of Participating Media , 1997, Rendering Techniques.

[4]  Takashi Okamoto,et al.  A lighting model aiming at drive simulators , 1990, SIGGRAPH.

[5]  H R Gordon.  Equivalence of the point and beam spread functions of scattering media: a formal demonstration. , 1994, Applied optics.

[6]  Jerry Tessendorf,et al.  Impact of multiple scattering on simulated infrared cloud scene images , 1994, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[7]  G. Rybicki.  Radiative transfer , 2019, Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling.

[8]  Andrea J. van Doorn,et al.  Shading in the case of translucent objects , 2001, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging.

[9]  Akira Ishimaru,et al.  Wave propagation and scattering in random media , 1997 .

[10]  J. McLean,et al.  Beam spread function with time dispersion. , 1998, Applied optics.

[11]  James T. Kajiya,et al.  Ray tracing volume densities , 1984, SIGGRAPH.

[12]  Steve Marschner,et al.  A practical model for subsurface light transport , 2001, SIGGRAPH.

[13]  Craig F. Bohren,et al.  Clouds in a glass of beer : simple experiments in atmospheric physics / Craig F. Bohren , 1987 .

[14]  Sumanta N. Pattanaik,et al.  Computation of global illumination in a participating medium by monte carlo simulation , 1993, Comput. Animat. Virtual Worlds.

[15]  David S. Ebert,et al.  Rendering and animation of gaseous phenomena by combining fast volume and scanline A-buffer techniques , 1990, SIGGRAPH.

[16]  J. March.  Introduction to the Calculus of Variations , 1999 .

[17]  Hans-Peter Seidel,et al.  Interactive Rendering of Translucent Objects † , 2003, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[18]  J W McLean,et al.  Limits of small angle scattering theory. , 1987, Applied optics.

[19]  Henrik Wann Jensen,et al.  A rapid hierarchical rendering technique for translucent materials , 2005, SIGGRAPH Courses.

[20]  Akira Ishimaru,et al.  Pulse propagation, scattering, and diffusion in scatterers and turbulence , 1979 .

[21]  Jos Stam,et al.  Multiple Scattering as a Diffusion Process , 1995, Rendering Techniques.

[22]  Kenneth E. Torrance,et al.  The zonal method for calculating light intensities in the presence of a participating medium , 1987, SIGGRAPH.

[23]  Pat Hanrahan,et al.  Monte Carlo evaluation of non-linear scattering equations for subsurface reflection , 2000, SIGGRAPH.

[24]  Jerry Tessendorf.  Measures of temporal pulse stretching , 1992, Optics & Photonics.

[25]  Peter Shirley,et al.  Path Integration for Light Transport in Volumes , 2003, Rendering Techniques.

[26]  Tom Lokovic,et al.  Deep shadow maps , 2000, SIGGRAPH.

[27]  Hans Sagan,et al.  Introduction to the Calculus of Variations. , 1969 .

[28]  J. McLean,et al.  Lidar equations for turbid media with pulse stretching. , 1999, Applied optics.

[29]  E. Tirapegui,et al.  Functional Integration and Semiclassical Expansions , 1982 .

[30]  L. Stotts,et al.  Closed form expression for optical pulse broadening in multiple-scattering media. , 1978, Applied optics.

[31]  Georgios Sakas,et al.  Fast Rendering of Arbitrary Distributed Volume Densities , 1990, Eurographics.

[32]  Tessendorf.  Radiative transfer as a sum over paths. , 1987, Physical review. A, General physics.

[33]  G J Hall,et al.  Moments of multiple scattering. , 1995, Applied optics.

[34]  G. I. Bell,et al.  Nuclear Reactor Theory , 1952 .

[35]  Jerry Tessendorf.  Time-dependent radiative transfer and pulse evolution , 1989 .

[36]  Pat Hanrahan,et al.  Reflection from layered surfaces due to subsurface scattering , 1993, SIGGRAPH.

[37]  Charles Fox,et al.  An introduction to the calculus of variations , 1950 .

[38]  C. Bohren.  Multiple scattering of light and some of its observable consequences , 1987 .

[39]  Kadi Bouatouch,et al.  Global Illumination in Presence of Participating Media with General Properties , 1995 .

[40]  Nelson L. Max,et al.  Atmospheric illumination and shadows , 1986, SIGGRAPH.

[41]  S. Nayar,et al.  Blurring of Light Due to Multiple Scattering by the Medium: A Path Integral Approach , 2004 .

[42]  J W McLean,et al.  Point spread function in ocean water: comparison between theory and experiment. , 1991, Applied optics.

[43]  Yoshinori Dobashi,et al.  Display of clouds taking into account multiple anisotropic scattering and sky light , 1996, SIGGRAPH.

[44]  Jerry Tessendorf.  Underwater solar light field: analytical model from a WKB evaluation , 1991, Optics & Photonics.

[45]  Per H. Christensen,et al.  Efficient simulation of light transport in scenes with participating media using photon maps , 1998, SIGGRAPH.

[46]  Christophe Schlick,et al.  A Rendering Algorithm for Discrete Volume Density Objects , 1993, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[47]  Shree K. Nayar,et al.  Shedding light on the weather , 2003, 2003 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2003. Proceedings..

[48]  Hans-Peter Seidel,et al.  Interactive rendering of translucent objects , 2002, 10th Pacific Conference on Computer Graphics and Applications, 2002. Proceedings..