Image processing using progressive generation of intermediate images using photon beams of varying parameters

摘要

A method for rendering radiance for a volumetric medium is provided. A photon simulation produces a representation of photon beams in a scene. The photon beams are rendered with respect to a camera viewpoint, by computing an estimated radiance associated with the photon beams. A global radius scaling factor can be applied to obtain different radii for the photon beams. Over multiple applications of these steps, the global radius scaling factor can be decreased, thereby reducing overall error by facilitating convergence. Finally, the renderer can be efficiently implemented on the GPU as a splatting operation, for use in interactive and real-time applications.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method of rendering a resulting image of a scene from a plurality of intermediate images, wherein the scene comprises a volumetric medium, and wherein the scene, the volumetric medium and lighting of such volumetric medium are represented by electronically readable representative data, the method comprising:
(a) performing a plurality of photon beam simulations, each photon beam simulation resulting in a representation of a plurality of photon beams in the scene, wherein performance of a photon beam simulation includes selecting a radius for each of the plurality of photon beams; (b) for each photon beam simulation, rendering the plurality of photon beams of the photon beam simulation to produce an intermediate image, wherein the rendering comprises computing, from the plurality of photon beams, an estimated radiance for each of a plurality of rays with respect to a camera viewpoint, and wherein computing an estimated radiance of a ray from the plurality of photon beams includes calculating a volumetric radiance associated with an intersection of the ray with a photon beam; (c) accumulating corresponding pixel values from at least two produced intermediate images to generate the resulting image of the scene.