The book discusses practical issues and provides a complete presentation of the most recent and innovative advances in the radiosity method: an exciting new technique for producing synthetic images. Unique illustrations and 45 color plates make this visually appealing to computer graphics buyers.

This book provides a fundamental understanding of global illumination algorithms. It discusses a broad class of algorithms for realistic image synthesis and introduces a theoretical basis for the algorithms presented. Topics include: physics of light transport, Monte Carlo methods, general strategies for solving the rendering equation, stochastic path-tracing algorithms such as ray tracing and light tracing, stochastic radiosity including photon density estimation and hierarchical Monte Carlo radiosity, hybrid algorithms, metropolis light transport, irradiance caching, photon mapping and instant radiosity, beyond the rendering equation, image display and human perception. If you want to design and implement a global illumination rendering system or need to use and modify an existing system for your specific purpose, this book will give you the tools and the understanding to do so.

What is Global Illumination Global illumination (GI), or indirect illumination, is a group of algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting to 3D scenes. Such algorithms take into account not only the light that comes directly from a light source, but also subsequent cases in which light rays from the same source are reflected by other surfaces in the scene, whether reflective or not. How you will benefit (I) Insights, and validations about the following topics: Chapter 1: Global illumination Chapter 2: Rendering (computer graphics) Chapter 3: Radiosity (computer graphics) Chapter 4: Ray tracing (graphics) Chapter 5: Phong reflection model Chapter 6: Metropolis light transport Chapter 7: Photon mapping Chapter 8: Shading Chapter 9: Ray casting Chapter 10: Lightmap (II) Answering the public top questions about global illumination. (III) Real world examples for the usage of global illumination in many fields. Who this book is for Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Global Illumination.

Irradiance caching is a ray tracing-based technique for computing global illumination on diffuse surfaces. Specifically, it addresses the computation of indirect illumination bouncing off one diffuse object onto another. The sole purpose of irradiance caching is to make this computation reasonably fast. The main idea is to perform the indirect illumination sampling only at a selected set of locations in the scene, store the results in a cache, and reuse the cached value at other points through fast interpolation. This book is for anyone interested in making a production-ready implementation of irradiance caching that reliably renders artifact-free images. Since its invention 20 years ago, the irradiance caching algorithm has been successfully used to accelerate global illumination computation in the Radiance lighting simulation system. Its widespread use had to wait until computers became fast enough to consider global illumination in film production rendering. Since then, its use is ubiquitous. Virtually all commercial and open-source rendering software base the global illumination computation upon irradiance caching. Although elegant and powerful, the algorithm in its basic form often fails to produce artifact-free mages. Unfortunately, practical information on implementing the algorithm is scarce. The main objective of this book is to show the irradiance caching algorithm along with all the details and tricks upon which the success of its practical implementation is dependent. In addition, we discuss some extensions of the basic algorithm, such as a GPU implementation for interactive global illumination computation and temporal caching that exploits temporal coherence to suppress flickering in animations. Our goal is to show the material without being overly theoretical. However, the reader should have some basic understanding of rendering concepts, ray tracing in particular. Familiarity with global illumination is useful but not necessary to read this book. Table of Contents: Introduction to Ray Tracing and Global Illumination / Irradiance Caching Core / Practical Rendering with Irradiance Caching / Irradiance Caching in a Complete Global Illumination / Irradiance Caching on Graphics Hardware / Temporal Irradiance Caching

This book presents techniques to render photo-realistic images by programming the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). We discuss effects such as mirror reflections, refractions, caustics, diffuse or glossy indirect illumination, radiosity, single or multiple scattering in participating media, tone reproduction, glow, and depth of field. The book targets game developers, graphics programmers, and also students with some basic understanding of computer graphics algorithms, rendering APIs like Direct3D or OpenGL, and shader programming. In order to make the book self-contained, the most important concepts of local illumination and global illumination rendering, graphics hardware, and Direct3D/HLSL programming are reviewed in the first chapters. After these introductory chapters we warm up with simple methods including shadow and environment mapping, then we move on toward advanced concepts aiming at global illumination rendering. Since it would have been impossible to give a rigorous review of all approaches proposed in this field, we go into the details of just a few methods solving each particular global illumination effect. However, a short discussion of the state of the art and links to the bibliography are also provided to refer the interested reader to techniques that are not detailed in this book. The implementation of the selected methods is also presented in HLSL, and we discuss their observed performance, merits, and disadvantages. In the last chapter, we also review how these techniques can be integrated in an advanced game engine and present case studies of their exploitation in games. Having gone through this book, the reader will have an overview of the state of the art, will be able to apply and improve these techniques, and most importantly, will be capable of developing brand new GPU algorithms. Table of Contents: Global Illumintation Rendering / Local Illumination Rendering Pipeline of GPUs / Programming and Controlling GPUs / Simple Improvements of the Local Illumination Model / Ray Casting on the GPU / Specular Effects with Rasterization / Diffuse and Glossy Indirect Illumination / Pre-computation Aided Global Illumination / Participating Media Rendering / Fake Global Illumination / Postprocessing Effects / Integrating GI Effects in Games and Virtual Reality Systems / Bibliography

Irradiance caching is a ray tracing-based technique for computing global illumination on diffuse surfaces. Specifically, it addresses the computation of indirect illumination bouncing off one diffuse object onto another. The sole purpose of irradiance caching is to make this computation reasonably fast. The main idea is to perform the indirect illumination sampling only at a selected set of locations in the scene, store the results in a cache, and reuse the cached value at other points through fast interpolation. This book is for anyone interested in making a production-ready implementation of irradiance caching that reliably renders artifact-free images. Since its invention 20 years ago, the irradiance caching algorithm has been successfully used to accelerate global illumination computation in the Radiance lighting simulation system. Its widespread use had to wait until computers became fast enough to consider global illumination in film production rendering. Since then, its use is ubiquitous. Virtually all commercial and open-source rendering software base the global illumination computation upon irradiance caching. Although elegant and powerful, the algorithm in its basic form often fails to produce artifact-free mages. Unfortunately, practical information on implementing the algorithm is scarce. The main objective of this book is to show the irradiance caching algorithm along with all the details and tricks upon which the success of its practical implementation is dependent. In addition, we discuss some extensions of the basic algorithm, such as a GPU implementation for interactive global illumination computation and temporal caching that exploits temporal coherence to suppress flickering in animations. Our goal is to show the material without being overly theoretical. However, the reader should have some basic understanding of rendering concepts, ray tracing in particular. Familiarity with global illumination is useful but not necessary to read this book. Table of Contents: Introduction to Ray Tracing and Global Illumination / Irradiance Caching Core / Practical Rendering with Irradiance Caching / Irradiance Caching in a Complete Global Illumination / Irradiance Caching on Graphics Hardware / Temporal Irradiance Caching

With the increase in computing speed and due to the high quality of the optical effects it achieves, ray tracing is becoming a popular choice for interactive and animated rendering. This book takes readers through the whole process of building a modern ray tracer from scratch in C++. All concepts and processes are explained in detail with the aid o

More useful techniques, tips, and tricks for harnessing the power of the new generation of powerful GPUs.

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 GPUs