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Adaptive Representation of Specular Light
Author(s) -
Brière Normand,
Poulin Pierre
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
computer graphics forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.578
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1467-8659
pISSN - 0167-7055
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8659.00485
Subject(s) - specular reflection , computer science , global illumination , point (geometry) , optics , computer vision , representation (politics) , artificial intelligence , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , opacity , specular highlight , computer graphics (images) , physics , rendering (computer graphics) , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , politics , law , political science
Caustics produce beautiful and intriguing illumination patterns. However, their complex behavior makes them difficult to simulate accurately in all but the simplest configurations. To capture their appearance, we present an adaptive approach based upon light beams. Exploiting the coherence between the light rays forming a beam greatly reduces the number of samples required for precise illumination reconstruction. The beams characterize the light distribution due to interactions with specular surfaces in 3D space. They thus allow for the treatment of illumination within single‐scattering participating media. A hierarchical structure enclosing the light beams possesses inherent properties to detect efficiently all beams reaching any 3D point, to adapt itself according to illumination effects in the final image, and to reduce memory consumption via caching.