An Overview of BRDF Models

This paper is focused on the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) in the context of algorithms for computational production of realistic synthetic images. We provide a review of most relevant analytical BRDF models proposed in the literature which have been used for realistic rendering. We also show different approaches used for obtaining efficient models from acquired reflectance data, and the related function fitting techniques, suitable for using that data in efficient rendering algorithms. We consider the algorithms for computation of BRDF integrals, by using Monte-Carlo based numerical integration. In this context, we review known techniques to design efficient BRDF sampling schemes for both analytical and measured BRDF models.

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