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Radiosity and Global Illumination

  • 1st Edition - July 1, 1994
  • Latest edition
  • Authors: François Sillion, Claude Puech
  • Language: English

The radiosity method, originally a computation tool for thermal engineers, has evolved in recent years into a powerful and flexible simulation technique for radiant energy tr… Read more

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Description

The radiosity method, originally a computation tool for thermal engineers, has evolved in recent years into a powerful and flexible simulation technique for radiant energy transfer. The ability to compute quantitatively accurate simulations of light transfers has opened a vast domain of applications for computer graphics. Thermal radiation studies, lighting design and remote sensing are a few of the fields affected by this exciting technique for producing synthetic images.

Here, the authors reformulate some of the most recent and innovative research results into a consistent framework, allowing readers to quickly acquire a comprehensive view of the technique and its derivatives. In addition to reviewing practical issues and offering recommendations, the authors also provide a complete theoretical presentation of the various radiosity algorithms.

Special highlights include 93 illustrations and 45 color plates and a practical guide which provides detailed information on various design issues for the development of global illumination software.

Table of contents

Radiosity and Global Illuminationby François X. Sillion and Claude Puech
    Color PlatesPreface1 Introduction
      1.1 Illumination in computer graphics1.2 Applications for global illumination algorithms
    2 Principles of global illumination
      2.1 Physical definitions useful for the study of global illumination
        2.1.1 Solid angle2.1.2 Radiometry2.1.3 Photometry2.1.4 Reflection of light
      2.2 A model of global illumination
        2.2.1 Energy balance equation2.2.2 Formal solution of the global illumination equation
    3 The basic radiosity method
      3.1 The radiosity equation
        3.1.1 Assumptions of the radiosity method3.1.2 The diffuse illumination equation3.1.3 Discrete formulation3.1.4 The form factor3.1.5 Notation3.1.6 Properties of the form factor
      3.2 Solution to the radiosity equation
        3.2.1 Iterative solution3.2.2 Treatment of color3.2.3 Display and image generation3.2.4 Cost considerations
      3.3 Computing the form factor
        3.3.1 Unoccluded case3.3.2 Projection methods3.3.3 The hemi-cube
    4 Managing the complexity
      4.1 Progressive refinement radiosity solution
        4.1.1 The radiosity solution process revisited4.1.2 Proof of convergence4.1.3 Physical interpretation of the Southwell relaxation process: propagating energy
      4.2 Substructuring
        4.2.1 Using various levels of subdivision: patches and elements4.2.2 Substructuring and progressive refinement
      4.3 Adaptive mesh refinement
        4.3.1 Automatic meshing4.3.2 Adaptive subdivision and Gauss-Seidel solution4.3.3 Adaptive subdivision and progressive refinement
      4.4 Hierarchical representation of surfaces
        4.4.1 Hierarchical representation of surfaces4.4.2 Constructing the hierarchy4.4.3 Solution of the hierarchical problem4.4.4 Refinement criteria and error control
      4.5 Adjoint radiosity formulation and importance
        4.5.1 The notion of importance4.5.2 Adjoint radiosity equation4.5.3 Simultaneous solution for radiosity and importance
    5 Improving the accuracy of the simulation
      5.1 Accurate computation of the form factors
        5.1.1 Problems with the hemi-cube5.1.2 Avoiding accuracy problems with the hemi-cube5.1.3 Direct computation at the vertices using ray casting
      5.2 Finite-element formulation of radiosity
        5.2.1 Galerkin method5.2.2 Point collocation method5.2.3 Computing the form factors5.2.4 Hierarchical elements and wavelets
      5.3 Avoiding geometrical problems with the mesh
        5.3.1 Simple meshing and common problems5.3.2 Mesh cleaning as a preprocess5.3.3 Discontinuity meshing
      5.4 Reconstruction of the radiosity functions
        5.4.1 Bilinear interpolation and Gouraud shading5.4.2 Higher-order reconstruction5.4.3 Reconstruction with discontinuities5.4.4 Reconstruction without polygons
    6 Controlling the simulation
      6.1 Interactive display of the results
        6.1.1 Walking through the scene6.1.2 Visibility preprocessing6.1.3 Levels of detail6.1.4 Data exploration and interactive steering
      6.2 Incremental computation
        6.2.1 Some simple examples6.2.2 Incremental formulation6.2.3 Organizing the computation6.2.4 Convergence
      6.3 Radiosity acceleration
        6.3.1 Software architecture for interactive display6.3.2 Using parallelism6.3.3 Improved progressive refinement6.3.4 Interactive accuracy control
      6.4 Radiosity as a tool for lighting design
    7 Extensions to radiosity
      7.1 Nondiffuse global illumination7.2 Radiosity with nondiffuse reflectors: discretizing both the surfaces and the direction space
        7.2.1 Finite-element formulation7.2.2 Directional radiosity
      7.3 Hybrid methods
        7.3.1 Bidirectional solution7.3.2 A simple two-pass approach7.3.3 A complete two-pass method
      7.4 Radiosity with directional radiance distributions
        7.4.1 Separation of ideal specular and directional diffuse reflection7.4.2 Computing with radiance distributions7.4.3 Representation of directional distributions
      7.5 Global illumination with participating media
        7.5.1 A general transfer equation7.5.2 The zonal method for isotropically scattering media
    8 Monte Carlo techniques for global illumination
      8.1 Some probabilistic techniques
        8.1.1 Sampling a random variable8.1.2 Random number generation
      8.2 Photon transport simulation
        8.2.1 General principles8.2.2 Particle tracing8.2.3 Conclusion
      8.3 Monte Carlo integration and the illumination equation
        8.3.1 Estimating integrals8.3.2 Monte Carlo solution to the illumination equation8.3.3 Random walk solution to the illumination equation
      8.4 Radiosity-based vs. Monte Carlo techniques for global illumination
    A A practical guide for radiosity and global illumination
      A.1 Basic requirements
        A.1.1 Basic requirementsA.1.2 Data structures for radiosityA.1.3 Accurate treatment of colorA.1.4 General light sources and radiosityA.1.5 Using measured radiometric dataA.1.6 Dynamic-range issuesA.1.7 Application to animationA.1.8 Interaction
      A.2 Useful enhancements
        A.2.1 Flexible computation of the form factorsA.2.2 Surface detail; texture and bump mappingA.2.3 Reflectance modeling
    BibliographyIndex

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: July 1, 1994
  • Language: English

About the author

FS

François Sillion

Affiliations and expertise
INRIA Rhône-Alpes, Montbonnot, France