One of the topics in this class is investigating different global illumination algorithms.

Contents

In the class we will discuss advanced computer graphics techniques for realistic image synthesis. This includes techniques for simulating global illumination, participating media, and material models including BRDF and BSSRDF models. In this class we will discuss many natural phenomena such as the blue sky, the appearance of human skin, clouds, and milk. The goal is to understand how different computer graphics algorithms can be used to simulate these phenomena.

Instructor

Henrik Wann Jensen

Optional books

Andrew Glassner, "Principles of Digital Image Synthesis", Morgan-Kaufman, 1995. Free PDF Version of this book.

Henrik Wann Jensen, "Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping", AK Peters, 2001

Pharr and Humphreys, "Physically Based Rendering", Morgan-Kaufman 2004

Dutre, Bala, and Baekert, "Advanced Global Illumination", AK Peters, 2006

Lectures

Monday/Wednesday, 11:00pm - 12:20pm in CSE 2154

Prerequisites

One or two computer graphics classes. The student should have a thorough understanding of ray tracing as well as a basic understanding of the concept of shading.

The class projects will be in C++ - this will not be taught in the class.

Grading

The class will be graded based on various assignments (65%), a midterm (20%), and a class lecture (15%).

Assignments

• Assignment 1
• Assignment 2
  • Adaptive Progressive Photon Mapping (preprint)
  • Metropolis sampling paper
• Assignment 3 (Updated May 25)

Schedule

• Welcome, Course Setup, Light Physics, Radiometry and Photometry
• Reading:
• Glassner, Chapter 13 (optional)

• Light and Matter
• Reading:
• Glassner, Chapter 14

• Light Surface Interaction

• Global Illumination and Monte Carlo Ray Tracing
• Reading:
• Kajiya, "The Rendering Equation", SIGGRAPH 1986
  
• Optional Reading:
• Lafortune et al., Bidirectional Path Tracing", Compugraphics 1993
• Veach et al., Metropolis Light Transport, SIGGRAPH 1997
• Veach et al., Robust Monte Carlo Methods for Light Transport Simulation, Chapter 9 and Chapter 10
• Lafortune, Mathematical Models for Light Transport Simulation

• Photon Mapping
• Reading:
• Jensen, Global Illumination Using Photon Maps, EGWR 1996
• Optional Reading:
• Jensen, "Realistic Image Synthesis using Photon Mapping", Chapters 4-9

• Progressive Photon Mapping
• Reading:
• Hachisuka et al., "Progressive Photon Mapping", Siggraph Asia 2008

• Multiple Importance Sampling [slides ]
• Reading:
• Veach and Guibas, Optimally combining sampling techniques for Monte Carlo rendering, Siggraph 1995

• BRDF Models
• Reading:
• Glassner, Chapter 15
• Optional:
• Phong, "Illumination for Computer Generated Pictures", CACM 1975
• Blinn, "Models of Light Reflection for Computer Synthesized Pictures", SIGGRAPH 1977
• Cook and Torrance, "A Reflectance Model for Computer Graphics", ACM TOG, 1982
• Ward, "Measuring and Modeling Anisotropic Reflection", SIGGRAPH 1992

• Microfacet Theory
• Reading:
• Torrance and Sparrow, "Theory for off-specular reflection", JOSA 1967
• Blinn, "Models of Light Reflection for Computer Synthesized Pictures", SIGGRAPH 1977
• Optional:
• Oren and Nayar, "Generalization of Lambert's reflection model", SIGGRAPH 1994
• Ashikmin et al., "A microfacet based BRDF generator", SIGGRAPH 2000

• Participating Media (Radiative transport, phase functions, analytic models, single scattering)
• Reading:
• Glassner, Chapter 12
• Optional Reading:
• Blinn, "Light reflection functions for simulation of clouds and dusty surfaces", SIGGRAPH 1982
• Chandrasekhar, "Radiative Transfer", pages 1-21

• Participating Media (Multiple scattering, ray marching)
• Reading:
• Jensen, "Realistic Image Synthesis using Photon Mapping", Chapters 10

• Jorge Schwarzhaupt
• A Practical Analytical Model for Daylight, Preetham, Shirley, and Smits
• Hallgeir Lien
• OptiX: A General Purpose Ray Tracing Engine, Parker et al.
• Andreas Fischer
• HLBVH: Hierarchical LBVH Construction for Real-Time Ray Tracing, Jacopo Pantaleoni and David Luebke

• David Vanoni
• Spatial splits in bounding volume hierarchies, Stich et al.
• Lynn Nguyen
• Realtime Ray Tracing on GPUs using BVH-Based Packet traversal, Gunther et al.
• Zhe Fu
• Energy redistribution path tracing, Cline et al.

• Marlena Fecho
• Physically-Based Rendering of Rainbows, Iman et al.
• My Pham and James Lue
• Physically Based Rendering of Rainstreaks, Garg et al.

• Sura Elamurugu
• Dual Scattering Approximation for Fast Multiple Scattering in Hair, Yuksel et al.
• Alejandro Guzman
• A Practical Introduction to Metropolis Light Transport, Cline et al.
• Jason Greco
• Fast Construction of SAH BVHs on the Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) Architecture, Ingo Wald

• Midterm. Midterm 2010

• Phi Hung Nguyen
• The Beam Radiance Estimate for Volumetric Photon Mapping, Jarosz et al.
• Jon Lew
• Ray Tracing Deformable Scenes using Dynamic Bounding Volume Hierarchies, Wald et al.
• Timothy Martin
• Stackless KD-Tree Traversal for High Performance GPU Ray Tracing, Popov et al.
• Yi Chen
• Rendering Translucent Materials Using Photon Diffusion, Donner et al.

• Memorial day. No class.

• Alisha Lawson
  • Cascaded Light Propagation Volumes for Real-Time Indirect Illumination, Kaplanyan et al.
• David Caffrey
• A Physically-Based Nightsky Model, Jensen et al.
• Leoniel Lopez
• Anyone can cook