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Virtual Spherical Gaussian Lights for Real‐time Glossy Indirect Illumination
Author(s) -
Tokuyoshi Yusuke
Publication year - 2015
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/cgf.12748
Subject(s) - gaussian , computer science , computer graphics (images) , computer vision , global illumination , artificial intelligence , shadow (psychology) , frame rate , radiance , optics , physics , rendering (computer graphics) , psychology , quantum mechanics , psychotherapist
Virtual point lights (VPLs) are well established for real‐time global illumination. However, this method suffers from spiky artifacts and flickering caused by singularities of VPLs, highly glossy materials, high‐frequency textures, and discontinuous geometries. To avoid these artifacts, this paper introduces a virtual spherical Gaussian light (VSGL) which roughly represents a set of VPLs. For a VSGL, the total radiant intensity and positional distribution of VPLs are approximated using spherical Gaussians and a Gaussian distribution, respectively. Since this approximation can be computed using summations of VPL parameters, VSGLs can be dynamically generated using mipmapped reflective shadow maps. Our VSGL generation is simple and independent from any scene geometries. In addition, reflected radiance for a VSGL is calculated using an analytic formula. Hence, we are able to render one‐bounce glossy interreflections at real‐time frame rates with smaller artifacts.