Fast and Accurate Visibility Preprocessing

Visibility culling is a means of accelerating the graphical rendering of geometric models. Invisible objects are efficiently culled to prevent their submission to the standard graphics pipeline. It is advantageous to preprocess scenes in order to determine invisible objects from all possible camera views. This information is typically saved to disk and may then be reused until the model geometry changes. Such preprocessing algorithms are therefore used for scenes that are primarily static. Currently, the standard approach to visibility preprocessing algorithms is to use a form of approximate solution, known as conservative culling. Such algorithms over-estimate the set of visible polygons. This compromise has been considered necessary in order to perform visibility preprocessing quickly. These algorithms attempt to satisfy the goals of both rapid preprocessing and rapid run-time rendering. We observe, however, that there is a need for algorithms with superior performance in preprocessing, as well as for algorithms that are more accurate. For most applications these features are not required simultaneously. In this thesis we present two novel visibility preprocessing algorithms, each of which is strongly biased toward one of these requirements. The first algorithm has the advantage of performance. It executes quickly by exploiting graphics hardware. The algorithm also has the features of output sensitivity (to what is visible), and a logarithmic dependency in the size of the camera space partition. These advantages come at the cost of image error. We present a heuristic guided adaptive sampling methodology that minimises this error. We further show how this algorithm may be parallelised and also present a natural extension of the algorithm to five dimensions for accelerating generalised ray shooting. The second algorithm has the advantage of accuracy. No over-estimation is performed, nor are any sacrifices made in terms of image quality. The cost is primarily that of time. Despite the relatively long computation, the algorithm is still tractable and on average scales slightly superlinearly with the input size. This algorithm also has the advantage of output sensitivity. This is the first known tractable exact solution to the general 3D from-region visibility problem. In order to solve the exact from-region visibility problem, we had to first solve a more general form of the standard stabbing problem. An efficient solution to this problem is presented independently

On real-time ray tracing

Rendering of increasingly complex and detailed objects and scenes, with physically correct light simulation, is an important problem for many fields ranging from medical imaging to computer games. While even the latest graphics processing units are unable to render truly massive models consisting of hundreds of millions of primitives, an algorithm known as ray tracing – which by its very nature approximates light transport – can be used to solve such problems. Ray tracing is a simple but powerful method known to produce high image quality, but it is also known for its slow execution speed. This thesis examines parts of the research made to bring ray tracing into the interactive sphere. Specifically, it explores ray-triangle intersections, ray coherency, as well as kd-tree building and traversal. Even though these issues are delved into in the context of interactive graphics, the insights provided by the analyzed literature will also translate to other domains. Asiasanat:ray tracing, kd-tre

Efficient From-Point Visibility for Global Illumination in Virtual Scenes with Participating Media

Sichtbarkeitsbestimmung ist einer der fundamentalen Bausteine fotorealistischer Bildsynthese. Da die Berechnung der Sichtbarkeit allerdings äußerst kostspielig zu berechnen ist, wird nahezu die gesamte Berechnungszeit darauf verwendet. In dieser Arbeit stellen wir neue Methoden zur Speicherung, Berechnung und Approximation von Sichtbarkeit in Szenen mit streuenden Medien vor, die die Berechnung erheblich beschleunigen, dabei trotzdem qualitativ hochwertige und artefaktfreie Ergebnisse liefern

Realtime ray tracing and interactive global illumination

One of the most sought-for goals in computer graphics is to generate "realism in real time". i.e. the generation of realistically looking images at realtime frame rates. Today, virtually all approaches towards realtime rendering use graphics hardware, which is based almost exclusively on triangle rasterization. Unfortunately, though this technology has seen tremendous progress over the last few years, for many applications it is currently reaching its limits in both model complexity, supported features, and achievable realism. An alternative to triangle rasterizations is the ray tracing algorithm, which is well-known for its higher flexibility, its generally higher achievable realism, and its superior scalability in both model size and compute power. However, ray tracing is also computationally demanding and thus so far is used almost exclusively for high-quality offline rendering tasks. This dissertation focuses on the question why ray tracing is likely to soon play a larger role for interactive applications, and how this scenario can be reached. To this end, we discuss the RTRT/OpenRT realtime ray tracing system, a software based ray tracing system that achieves interactive to realtime frame rates on todays commodity CPUs. In particular, we discuss the overall system design, the efficient implementation of the core ray tracing algorithms, techniques for handling dynamic scenes, an efficient parallelization framework, and an OpenGL-like low-level API. Taken together, these techniques form a complete realtime rendering engine that supports massively complex scenes, highley realistic and physically correct shading, and even physically based lighting simulation at interactive rates. In the last part of this thesis we then discuss the implications and potential of realtime ray tracing on global illumination, and how the availability of this new technology can be leveraged to finally achieve interactive global illumination - the physically correct simulation of light transport at interactive rates.Eines der wichtigsten Ziele der Computer-Graphik ist die Generierung von "Realismus in Echtzeit\u27; — die Erzeugung von realistisch wirkenden, computer- generierten Bildern in Echtzeit. Heutige Echtzeit-Graphikanwendungen werden derzeit zum überwiegenden Teil mit schneller Graphik-Hardware realisiert, welche zum aktuellen Stand der Technik fast ausschliesslich auf dem Dreiecksrasterisierungsalgorithmus basiert. Obwohl diese Rasterisierungstechnologie in den letzten Jahren zunehmend beeindruckende Fortschritte gemacht hat, stößt sie heutzutage zusehends an ihre Grenzen, speziell im Hinblick auf Modellkomplexität, unterstützte Beleuchtungseffekte, und erreichbaren Realismus. Eine Alternative zur Dreiecksrasterisierung ist das "Ray-Tracing\u27; (Stahl-Rückverfolgung), welches weithin bekannt ist für seine höhere Flexibilität, seinen im Großen und Ganzen höheren erreichbaren Realismus, und seine bessere Skalierbarkeit sowohl in Szenengröße als auch in Rechner-Kapazitäten. Allerdings ist Ray-Tracing ebenso bekannt für seinen hohen Rechenbedarf, und wird daher heutzutage fast ausschließlich für die hochqualitative, nichtinteraktive Bildsynthese benutzt. Diese Dissertation behandelt die Gründe warum Ray-Tracing in näherer Zukunft voraussichtlich eine größere Rolle für interaktive Graphikanwendungen spielen wird, und untersucht, wie dieses Szenario des Echtzeit Ray-Tracing erreicht werden kann. Hierfür stellen wir das RTRT/OpenRT Echtzeit Ray-Tracing System vor, ein software-basiertes Ray-Tracing System, welches es erlaubt, interaktive Performanz auf heutigen Standard-PC-Prozessoren zu erreichen. Speziell diskutieren wir das grundlegende System-Design, die effiziente Implementierung der Kern-Algorithmen, Techniken zur Unterstützung von dynamischen Szenen, ein effizientes Parallelisierungs-Framework, und eine OpenGL-ähnliche Anwendungsschnittstelle. In ihrer Gesamtheit formen diese Techniken ein komplettes Echtzeit-Rendering-System, welches es erlaubt, extrem komplexe Szenen, hochgradig realistische und physikalisch korrekte Effekte, und sogar physikalisch-basierte Beleuchtungssimulation interaktiv zu berechnen. Im letzten Teil der Dissertation behandeln wir dann die Implikationen und das Potential, welches Echtzeit Ray-Tracing für die Globale Beleuchtungssimulation bietet, und wie die Verfügbarkeit dieser neuen Technologie benutzt werden kann, um letztendlich auch Globale Belechtung — die physikalisch korrekte Simulation des Lichttransports — interaktiv zu berechnen

Efficient Many-Light Rendering of Scenes with Participating Media

We present several approaches based on virtual lights that aim at capturing the light transport without compromising quality, and while preserving the elegance and efficiency of many-light rendering. By reformulating the integration scheme, we obtain two numerically efficient techniques; one tailored specifically for interactive, high-quality lighting on surfaces, and one for handling scenes with participating media

Ray Tracing Gems

This book is a must-have for anyone serious about rendering in real time. With the announcement of new ray tracing APIs and hardware to support them, developers can easily create real-time applications with ray tracing as a core component. As ray tracing on the GPU becomes faster, it will play a more central role in real-time rendering. Ray Tracing Gems provides key building blocks for developers of games, architectural applications, visualizations, and more. Experts in rendering share their knowledge by explaining everything from nitty-gritty techniques that will improve any ray tracer to mastery of the new capabilities of current and future hardware. What you'll learn: The latest ray tracing techniques for developing real-time applications in multiple domains Guidance, advice, and best practices for rendering applications with Microsoft DirectX Raytracing (DXR) How to implement high-performance graphics for interactive visualizations, games, simulations, and more Who this book is for: Developers who are looking to leverage the latest APIs and GPU technology for real-time rendering and ray tracing Students looking to learn about best practices in these areas Enthusiasts who want to understand and experiment with their new GPU

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationReal-time global illumination is the next frontier in real-time rendering. In an attempt to generate realistic images, games have followed the film industry into physically based shading and will soon begin integrating global illumination techniques. Traditional methods require too much memory and too much time to compute for real-time use. With Modular and Delta Radiance Transfer we precompute a scene-independent, low-frequency basis that allows us to calculate complex indirect lighting calculations in a much lower dimensional subspace with a reduced memory footprint and real-time execution. The results are then applied as a light map on many different scenes. To improve the low frequency results, we also introduce a novel screen space ambient occlusion technique that allows us to generate a smoother result with fewer samples. These three techniques, low and high frequency used together, provide a viable indirect lighting solution that can be run in milliseconds on today's hardware, providing a useful new technique for indirect lighting in real-time graphics

Perceptually-motivated, interactive rendering and editing of global illumination

This thesis proposes several new perceptually-motivated techniques to synthesize, edit and enhance depiction of three-dimensional virtual scenes. Finding algorithms that fit the perceptually economic middle ground between artistic depiction and full physical simulation is the challenge taken in this work. First, we will present three interactive global illumination rendering approaches that are inspired by perception to efficiently depict important light transport. Those methods have in common to compute global illumination in large and fully dynamic scenes allowing for light, geometry, and material changes at interactive or real-time rates. Further, this thesis proposes a tool to edit reflections, that allows to bend physical laws to match artistic goals by exploiting perception. Finally, this work contributes a post-processing operator that depicts high contrast scenes in the same way as artists do, by simulating it "seen'; through a dynamic virtual human eye in real-time.Diese Arbeit stellt eine Anzahl von Algorithmen zur Synthese, Bearbeitung und verbesserten Darstellung von virtuellen drei-dimensionalen Szenen vor. Die Herausforderung liegt dabei in der Suche nach Ausgewogenheit zwischen korrekter physikalischer Berechnung und der künstlerischen, durch die Gesetze der menschlichen Wahrnehmung motivierten Praxis. Zunächst werden drei Verfahren zur Bild-Synthese mit globaler Beleuchtung vorgestellt, deren Gemeinsamkeit in der effizienten Handhabung großer und dynamischer virtueller Szenen liegt, in denen sich Geometrie, Materialen und Licht frei verändern lassen. Darauffolgend wird ein Werkzeug zum Editieren von Reflektionen in virtuellen Szenen das die menschliche Wahrnehmung ausnutzt um künstlerische Vorgaben umzusetzen, vorgestellt. Die Arbeit schließt mit einem Filter am Ende der Verarbeitungskette, der den wahrgenommen Kontrast in einem Bild erhöht, indem er die Entstehung von Glanzeffekten im menschlichen Auge nachbildet

Utilising path-vertex data to improve Monte Carlo global illumination.

Efficient techniques for photo-realistic rendering are in high demand across a wide array of industries. Notable applications include visual effects for film, entertainment and virtual reality. Less direct applications such as visualisation for architecture, lighting design and product development also rely on the synthesis of realistic and physically based illumination. Such applications assert ever increasing demands on light transport algorithms, requiring the computation of photo-realistic effects while handling complex geometry, light scattering models and illumination. Techniques based on Monte Carlo integration handle such scenarios elegantly and robustly, but despite seeing decades of focused research and wide commercial support, these methods and their derivatives still exhibit undesirable side effects that are yet to be resolved. In this thesis, Monte Carlo path tracing techniques are improved upon by utilizing path vertex data and intermediate radiance contributions readily available during rendering. This permits the development of novel progressive algorithms that render low noise global illumination while striving to maintain the desirable accuracy and convergence properties of unbiased methods. The thesis starts by presenting a discussion into optical phenomenon, physically based rendering and achieving photo realistic image synthesis. This is followed by in-depth discussion of the published theoretical and practical research in this field, with a focus on stochastic methods and modem rendering methodologies. This provides insight into the issues surrounding Monte Carlo integration both in the general and rendering specific contexts, along with an appreciation for the complexities of solving global light transport. Alternative methods that aim to address these issues are discussed, providing an insight into modem rendering paradigms and their characteristics. Thus, an understanding of the key aspects is obtained, that is necessary to build up and discuss the novel research and contributions to the field developed throughout this thesis. First, a path space filtering strategy is proposed that allows the path-based space of light transport to be classified into distinct subsets. This permits the novel combination of robust path tracing and recent progressive photon mapping algorithms to handle each subset based on the characteristics of the light transport in that space. This produces a hybrid progressive rendering technique that utilises the strengths of existing state of the art Monte Carlo and photon mapping methods to provide efficient and consistent rendering of complex scenes with vanishing bias. The second original contribution is a probabilistic image-based filtering and sample clustering framework that provides high quality previews of global illumination whilst remaining aware of high frequency detail and features in geometry, materials and the incident illumination. As will be seen, the challenges of edge-aware noise reduction are numerous and long standing, particularly when identifying high frequency features in noisy illumination signals. Discontinuities such as hard shadows and glossy reflections are commonly overlooked by progressive filtering techniques, however by dividing path space into multiple layers, once again based on utilising path vertex data, the overlapping illumination of varying intensities, colours and frequencies is more effectively handled. Thus noise is removed from each layer independent of features present in the remaining path space, effectively preserving such features