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Multi‐Image Based Photon Tracing for Interactive Global Illumination of Dynamic Scenes
Author(s) -
Yao Chunhui,
Wang Bin,
Chan Bin,
Yong Junhai,
Paul JeanClaude
Publication year - 2010
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.1467-8659.2010.01727.x
Subject(s) - global illumination , computer science , ray tracing (physics) , computer vision , computation , computer graphics (images) , beam tracing , image (mathematics) , artificial intelligence , tracing , simple (philosophy) , distributed ray tracing , rendering (computer graphics) , algorithm , optics , physics , operating system , philosophy , epistemology
Image space photon mapping has the advantage of simple implementation on GPU without pre‐computation of complex acceleration structures. However, existing approaches use only a single image for tracing caustic photons, so they are limited to computing only a part of the global illumination effects for very simple scenes. In this paper we fully extend the image space approach by using multiple environment maps for photon mapping computation to achieve interactive global illumination of dynamic complex scenes. The two key problems due to the introduction of multiple images are 1) selecting the images to ensure adequate scene coverage; and 2) reliably computing ray‐geometry intersections with multiple images. We present effective solutions to these problems and show that, with multiple environment maps, the image‐space photon mapping approach can achieve interactive global illumination of dynamic complex scenes. The advantages of the method are demonstrated by comparison with other existing interactive global illumination methods.