Photon differentials

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

A number of popular global illumination algorithms uses density estimation to approximate indirect illumination. The density estimate is performed on finite points - particles - generated by a stochastic sampling of the scene. In the course of the sampling, particles, representing light, are stochastically emitted from the light sources and reflected around the scene. The sampling induces noise, which in turn is handled by the density estimate during the illumination reconstruction. Unfortunately, this noise reduction imposes a systematic error (bias), which is seen as a blurring of prominent illumination features. This is often not desirable as these may lose clarity or vanish altogether. We present an accurate method for reconstruction of indirect illumination with photon mapping. Instead of reconstructing illumination using classic density estimation on finite points, we use the correlation of light footprints, created by using Ray Differentials during the light pass. This procedure gives a high illumination accuracy, improving the trade-off between bias and variance considerable as compared to traditional particle tracing algorithms. In this way we preserve structures in indirect illumination.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - GRAPHITE 2007, 5th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Australasia and Southeast Asia
Number of pages8
Publication date2007
Pages179-186
ISBN (Print)9781595939128
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2007
Event5th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Australasia and South-East Asia, GRAPHITE 2007 - Perth, WA, Australia
Duration: 1 Dec 20074 Dec 2007

Conference

Conference5th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Australasia and South-East Asia, GRAPHITE 2007
LandAustralia
ByPerth, WA
Periode01/12/200704/12/2007
SponsorACM SIGGRAPH
SeriesProceedings - GRAPHITE 2007, 5th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Australasia and Southeast Asia

    Research areas

  • caustics, global illumination, photon mapping, ray differentials, ray-tracing

ID: 306858736