Multidimensional illumination functions for visualization of complex 3D environments

This paper presents a new view-independent, energy equilibrium method for determining the light distributed in a complex 3D environment consisting of surfaces with general reflectance properties. The method does not depend on discretization of directions or discretization of surfaces to differential elements. Hence, it is a significant improvement over the earlier complete view-independent method which is computationally intractable for complex environments or the hybrid methods which include an extended view-dependent ray tracing second pass. The new method is based on an efficient data structure of order O(N2) called the spherical cover. The spherical cover elegantly captures the complex multidimensional directional nature of light distributed over surfaces. Subdivision techniques based on range estimation of various parameters using interval-arithmetic-like methods are next described for efficiently computing the spherical cover for a given 3D environment. Using the spherical cover, light is progressively propagated through the environment until energy equilibrium is reached. Complexity analysis of the propagation step is carried out to show that the method is computationally tractable. The paper also includes a comprehensive review of earlier rendering techniques viewed from the point of view of capturing the multidimensional nature of light distribution over surfaces.

[1]  Edwin Earl Catmull,et al.  A subdivision algorithm for computer display of curved surfaces. , 1974 .

[2]  Bui Tuong Phong.  Illumination for computer generated pictures , 1975, Commun. ACM.

[3]  James F. Blinn,et al.  Models of light reflection for computer synthesized pictures , 1977, SIGGRAPH.

[4]  I. Faux,et al.  Computational Geometry for Design and Manufacture , 1979 .

[5]  Turner Whitted,et al.  An improved illumination model for shaded display , 1979, CACM.

[6]  D. Spencer,et al.  The photic field , 1981 .

[7]  Scott D. Roth,et al.  Ray casting for modeling solids , 1982, Comput. Graph. Image Process..

[8]  James T. Kajiya,et al.  Ray tracing parametric patches , 1982, SIGGRAPH.

[9]  David F. Rogers,et al.  Procedural Elements for Computer Graphics , 1984 .

[10]  Robert L. Cook,et al.  Distributed ray tracing , 1984, SIGGRAPH.

[11]  Sudhir P. Mudur,et al.  Interval Methods for Processing Geometric Objects , 1984, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[12]  Donald P. Greenberg,et al.  Modeling the interaction of light between diffuse surfaces , 1984, SIGGRAPH.

[13]  Donald P. Greenberg,et al.  The hemi-cube: a radiosity solution for complex environments , 1985, SIGGRAPH.

[14]  Donald P. Greenberg,et al.  An Efficient Radiosity Approach for Realistic Image Synthesis , 1986, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[15]  Donald P. Greenberg,et al.  A radiosity method for non-diffuse environments , 1986, SIGGRAPH.

[16]  Donald P. Greenberg,et al.  A two-pass solution to the rendering equation: A synthesis of ray tracing and radiosity methods , 1987, SIGGRAPH.

[17]  N. Magnenat-Thalmann,et al.  Image Synthesis Theory and Practice , 1988 .

[18]  Donald P. Greenberg,et al.  A progressive refinement approach to fast radiosity image generation , 1988, SIGGRAPH.

[19]  Qunsheng Peng,et al.  A new radiosity approach by procedural refinements for realistic image sythesis , 1988, SIGGRAPH.

[20]  John R. Wallace,et al.  A Ray tracing algorithm for progressive radiosity , 1989, SIGGRAPH '89.

[21]  Y. J. Tejwani,et al.  Robot vision , 1989, IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems,.

[22]  Donald S. Fussell,et al.  Illumination networks: fast realistic rendering with general reflectance functions , 1989, SIGGRAPH '89.

[23]  Chris Buckalew,et al.  Fast Illumination Networks: Realistic Rendering with General Reflectance Functions , 1989 .

[24]  Claude Puech,et al.  A general two-pass method integrating specular and diffuse reflection , 1989, SIGGRAPH '89.

[25]  Daniel R. Baum,et al.  Improving radiosity solutions through the use of analytically determined form-factors , 1989, SIGGRAPH.

[26]  Gerald Farin,et al.  Curves and surfaces for computer aided geometric design , 1990 .