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An Improved Physically‐Based Soft Shadow Volume Algorithm
Author(s) -
Lehtinen Jaakko,
Laine Samuli,
Aila Timo
Publication year - 2006
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/j.1467-8659.2006.00949.x
Subject(s) - computer science , correctness , speedup , shadow (psychology) , computer graphics , solver , ray tracing (physics) , volume (thermodynamics) , image (mathematics) , algorithm , computer graphics (images) , artificial intelligence , parallel computing , psychology , physics , quantum mechanics , psychotherapist , programming language
We identify and analyze several performance problems in a state‐of‐the‐art physically‐based soft shadow volume algorithm, and present an improved method that alleviates these problems by replacing an overly conservative spatial acceleration structure by a more efficient one. The new technique consistently outperforms both the previous method and a ray tracing‐based reference solution in several realistic situations while retaining the correctness of the solution and other desirable characteristics of the previous method. These include the unintrusiveness of the original algorithm, meaning that our method can be used as a black‐box shadow solver in any offline renderer without requiring multiple passes over the image or other special accommodation. We achieve speedup factors from 1.6 to 12.3 when compared to the previous method. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.7 [Three‐Dimensional Graphics and Realism]: Shadowing