Efficient Object-Based Hierarchical Radiosity Methods

The efficient generation of photorealistic images is one of the main subjects in the field of computer graphics. In contrast to simple image generation which is directly supported by standard 3D graphics hardware, photorealistic image synthesis strongly adheres to the physics describing the flow of light in a given environment. By simulating the energy flow in a 3D scene global effects like shadows and inter-reflections can be rendered accurately. The hierarchical radiosity method is one way of computing the global illumination in a scene. Due to its limitation to purely diffuse surfaces solutions computed by this method are view independent and can be examined in real-time walkthroughs. Additionally, the physically based algorithm makes it well suited for lighting design and architectural visualization. The focus of this thesis is the application of object-oriented methods to the radiosity problem. By consequently keeping and using object information throughout all stages of the algorithms several contributions to the field of radiosity rendering could be made. By introducing a new meshing scheme, it is shown how curved objects can be treated efficiently by hierarchical radiosity algorithms. Using the same paradigm the radiosity computation can be distributed in a network of computers. A parallel implementation is presented that minimizes communication costs while obtaining an efficient speedup. Radiosity solutions for very large scenes became possible by the use of clustering algorithms. Groups of objects are combined to clusters to simulate the energy exchange on a higher abstraction level. It is shown how the clustering technique can be improved without loss in image quality by applying the same data-structure for both, the visibility computations and the efficient radiosity simulation.Eines der Schwerpunktthemen in der Computergraphik ist die effiziente Erzeugung von fotorealistischen Bildern. Im Gegensatz zur einfachen Bilderzeugung, die bereits durch gaengige 3D-Grafikhardware unterstuetzt wird, gehorcht die fotorealistische Bildsynthese physikalischen Gesetzen, die die Lichtausbreitung innerhalb einer bestimmten Umgebung beschreiben. Durch die Simulation der Energieausbreitung in einer dreidimensionalen Szene koennen globale Effekte wie Schatten und mehrfache Reflektionen wirklichkeitstreu dargestellt werden. Die hierarchische Radiositymethode (Hierarchical Radiosity) ist eine Moeglichkeit, um die globale Beleuchtung innerhalb einer Szene zu berechnen. Da diese Methode auf die Verwendung von rein diffus reflektierenden Oberflaechen beschraenkt ist, sind damit errechnete Loesungen blickwinkelunabhaengig und lassen sich in Echtzeit am Bildschirm durchwandern. Zudem ist dieser Algorithmus aufgrund der verwendeten physikalischen Grundlagen sehr gut zur Beleuchtungssimulation und Architekturvisualisierung geeignet. Den Schwerpunkt dieser Doktorarbeit stellt die Anwendung objektbasierter Methoden auf das Radiosityproblem dar. Durch konsequente Ausnutzung von Objektinformationen waehrend aller Berechnungsschritte konnten verschiedene Verbesserungen im Rahmen der hierarchischen Radiositymethode erzielt werden. Gekruemmte Objekte koennen aufgrund eines neuen Flaechenunterteilungsverfahrens nun effizient durch den hierarchischen Radiosityalgorithmus dargestellt werden. Dieses Verfahren ermoeglicht ebenso eine effiziente Parallelisierung des hierarchischen Radiosityalgorithmus. Es wird ein parallele Implementierung vorgestellt, die unter Minimierung der Kommunikationskosten eine effiziente Geschwindigkeitssteigerung erzielt. Radiosityberechnungen fuer sehr grosse Szenen sind nur durch Verwendung sogenannter Clustering-Algorithmen moeglich. Dabei werden Gruppen von Objekten zu Clustern kombiniert um den Energieaustausch zwischen Oberflaechen stellvertretend auf einem hoeheren Abstraktionsniveau durchzufuehren. Durch Verwendung derselben Datenstruktur fuer Sichtbarkeitsberechnungen und fuer die Steuerung der Radiositysimulation wird gezeigt, wie das Clusteringverfahren ohne Qualitaetsverluste verbessert werden kann

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

Information theoretic refinement criteria for image synthesis

Aquest treball està enmarcat en el context de gràfics per computador partint de la intersecció de tres camps: rendering, teoria de la informació, i complexitat.Inicialment, el concepte de complexitat d'una escena es analitzat considerant tres perspectives des d'un punt de vista de la visibilitat geomètrica: complexitat en un punt interior, complexitat d'una animació, i complexitat d'una regió. L'enfoc principal d'aquesta tesi és l'exploració i desenvolupament de nous criteris de refinament pel problema de la il·luminació global. Mesures de la teoria de la informació basades en la entropia de Shannon i en la entropia generalitzada de Harvda-Charvát-Tsallis, conjuntament amb les f-divergències, són analitzades com a nuclis del refinement. Mostrem com ens aporten una rica varietat d'eficients i altament discriminatòries mesures que són aplicables al rendering en els seus enfocs de pixel-driven (ray-tracing) i object-space (radiositat jeràrquica).Primerament, basat en la entropia de Shannon, es defineixen un conjunt de mesures de qualitat i contrast del pixel. S'apliquen al supersampling en ray-tracing com a criteris de refinement, obtenint un algorisme nou de sampleig adaptatiu basat en entropia, amb un alt rati de qualitat versus cost. En segon lloc, basat en la entropia generalitzada de Harvda-Charvát-Tsallis, i en la informació mutua generalitzada, es defineixen tres nous criteris de refinament per la radiositat jeràrquica. En correspondencia amb tres enfocs clàssics, es presenten els oracles basats en la informació transportada, el suavitzat de la informació, i la informació mutua, amb resultats molt significatius per aquest darrer. Finalment, tres membres de la familia de les f-divergències de Csiszár's (divergències de Kullback-Leibler, chi-square, and Hellinger) son analitzats com a criteris de refinament mostrant bons resultats tant pel ray-tracing com per la radiositat jeràrquica.This work is framed within the context of computer graphics starting out from the intersection of three fields: rendering, information theory, and complexity.Initially, the concept of scene complexity is analysed considering three perspectives from a geometric visibility point of view: complexity at an interior point, complexity of an animation, and complexity of a region. The main focus of this dissertation is the exploration and development of new refinement criteria for the global illumination problem. Information-theoretic measures based on Shannon entropy and Harvda-Charvát-Tsallis generalised entropy, together with f-divergences, are analysed as kernels of refinement. We show how they give us a rich variety of efficient and highly discriminative measures which are applicable to rendering in its pixel-driven (ray-tracing) and object-space (hierarchical radiosity) approaches.Firstly, based on Shannon entropy, a set of pixel quality and pixel contrast measures are defined. They are applied to supersampling in ray-tracing as refinement criteria, obtaining a new entropy-based adaptive sampling algorithm with a high rate quality versus cost. Secondly, based on Harvda-Charvát-Tsallis generalised entropy, and generalised mutual information, three new refinement criteria are defined for hierarchical radiosity. In correspondence with three classic approaches, oracles based on transported information, information smoothness, and mutual information are presented, with very significant results for the latter. And finally, three members of the family of Csiszár's f-divergences (Kullback-Leibler, chi-square, and Hellinger divergences) are analysed as refinement criteria showing good results for both ray-tracing and hierarchical radiosity

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

A Progressive Algorithm For Three Point Transport

When computing global illumination in environments made up of surfaces with general Bidirectionnal Reflection Distribution Function, a three point formulation of the rendering equation can be used. Brute-force algorithms can lead to a linear system of equations whose matrix is cubic, which is expensive in time and space. The hierarchical approach is more efficient. Aupperle et al. proposed a hierchical three point algorithm to compute global illumination in presence of glossy reflection. We present in this paper some improvements we brought to this method: shooting, "lazy" push-pull, photometric subdivision criterion... Then we will show how our new method takes into account non-planar surfaces in the hierarchical resolution process

Towards interactive global illumination effects via sequential Monte Carlo adaptation

Journal ArticleThis paper presents a novel method that effectively combines both control variates and importance sampling in a sequential Monte Carlo context while handling general single-bounce global illumination effects. The radiance estimates computed during the rendering process are cached in an adaptive per-pixel structure that defines dynamic predicate functions for both variance reduction techniques and guarantees well-behaved PDFs, yielding continually increasing efficiencies thanks to a marginal computational overhead

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationWhile boundary representations, such as nonuniform rational B-spline (NURBS) surfaces, have traditionally well served the needs of the modeling community, they have not seen widespread adoption among the wider engineering discipline. There is a common perception that NURBS are slow to evaluate and complex to implement. Whereas computer-aided design commonly deals with surfaces, the engineering community must deal with materials that have thickness. Traditional visualization techniques have avoided NURBS, and there has been little cross-talk between the rich spline approximation community and the larger engineering field. Recently there has been a strong desire to marry the modeling and analysis phases of the iterative design cycle, be it in car design, turbulent flow simulation around an airfoil, or lighting design. Research has demonstrated that employing a single representation throughout the cycle has key advantages. Furthermore, novel manufacturing techniques employing heterogeneous materials require the introduction of volumetric modeling representations. There is little question that fields such as scientific visualization and mechanical engineering could benefit from the powerful approximation properties of splines. In this dissertation, we remove several hurdles to the application of NURBS to problems in engineering and demonstrate how their unique properties can be leveraged to solve problems of interest