22,039 research outputs found
Flux-Limited Diffusion for Multiple Scattering in Participating Media
For the rendering of multiple scattering effects in participating media,
methods based on the diffusion approximation are an extremely efficient
alternative to Monte Carlo path tracing. However, in sufficiently transparent
regions, classical diffusion approximation suffers from non-physical radiative
fluxes which leads to a poor match to correct light transport. In particular,
this prevents the application of classical diffusion approximation to
heterogeneous media, where opaque material is embedded within transparent
regions. To address this limitation, we introduce flux-limited diffusion, a
technique from the astrophysics domain. This method provides a better
approximation to light transport than classical diffusion approximation,
particularly when applied to heterogeneous media, and hence broadens the
applicability of diffusion-based techniques. We provide an algorithm for
flux-limited diffusion, which is validated using the transport theory for a
point light source in an infinite homogeneous medium. We further demonstrate
that our implementation of flux-limited diffusion produces more accurate
renderings of multiple scattering in various heterogeneous datasets than
classical diffusion approximation, by comparing both methods to ground truth
renderings obtained via volumetric path tracing.Comment: Accepted in Computer Graphics Foru
Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review
Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented
Serious Games in Cultural Heritage
Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented
HoME: a Household Multimodal Environment
We introduce HoME: a Household Multimodal Environment for artificial agents
to learn from vision, audio, semantics, physics, and interaction with objects
and other agents, all within a realistic context. HoME integrates over 45,000
diverse 3D house layouts based on the SUNCG dataset, a scale which may
facilitate learning, generalization, and transfer. HoME is an open-source,
OpenAI Gym-compatible platform extensible to tasks in reinforcement learning,
language grounding, sound-based navigation, robotics, multi-agent learning, and
more. We hope HoME better enables artificial agents to learn as humans do: in
an interactive, multimodal, and richly contextualized setting.Comment: Presented at NIPS 2017's Visually-Grounded Interaction and Language
Worksho
The Iray Light Transport Simulation and Rendering System
While ray tracing has become increasingly common and path tracing is well
understood by now, a major challenge lies in crafting an easy-to-use and
efficient system implementing these technologies. Following a purely
physically-based paradigm while still allowing for artistic workflows, the Iray
light transport simulation and rendering system allows for rendering complex
scenes by the push of a button and thus makes accurate light transport
simulation widely available. In this document we discuss the challenges and
implementation choices that follow from our primary design decisions,
demonstrating that such a rendering system can be made a practical, scalable,
and efficient real-world application that has been adopted by various companies
across many fields and is in use by many industry professionals today
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