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Global Illumination as a Combination of Continuous Random Walk and Finite‐Element Based Iteration
Author(s) -
SzirmayKalos László,
Csonka Ferenc,
Antal György
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 - 10.1111/1467-8659.00521
Subject(s) - finite element method , monte carlo method , component (thermodynamics) , computer science , monte carlo integration , random walk , mathematical optimization , algorithm , mathematics , hybrid monte carlo , markov chain monte carlo , statistics , physics , thermodynamics
The paper introduces a global illumination method that combines continuous and finite‐element approaches, pre‐serving the speed of finite‐element based iteration and the accuracy of continuous random walks. The basic idea is to decompose the radiance function to a finite‐element component that is only a rough estimate and to a difference component that is obtained by Monte‐Carlo techniques. Iteration and random walk are handled uniformly in the framework of stochastic iteration. This uniform treatment allows the finite‐element component to be built up adap‐tively aiming at minimizing the Monte‐Carlo component. The method is also suited for interactive walkthrough animation in glossy scenes since when the viewpoint changes, only the small Monte‐Carlo component needs to be recomputed.