Point-based guided importance sampling

摘要

A computer-animated scene illuminated by indirect light is shaded. The scene is comprised of sample locations on a surface element of an object in the scene. A point cloud representation of the scene is generated. Optionally, an importance map of the scene, based on the point cloud representation, is generated. The importance map is generated by rasterizing one or more points in the point cloud and designating areas of interest based on the energy value of the one or more points in the point cloud. A ray tracing engine is biased, based on the importance map. The biased ray tracing engine calculates the path of the ray to the sample locations in the scene to an area of interest. The scene is shaded using the output from the biased ray tracing engine.

主权项

1. A computer-enabled method for shading a scene illuminated by indirect light, the scene comprising a sample location on a surface element of an object in the scene, the surface element lying at least partially within a camera viewing frustum of a virtual camera, the method comprising:
generating a point cloud representation of the scene, wherein the point cloud representation of the scene is generated by dividing the surface of the object in the scene into one or more micropolygons and storing an energy value for each micropolygon into a point of one or more points in the point cloud; generating an importance map of the scene, based on the point cloud, wherein the importance map is generated by rasterizing the one or more points in the point cloud and designating an area of interest based on the energy values of the one or more points in the point cloud; biasing a ray tracing engine based on the importance map to calculate the path of a ray to the sample location to the area of interest; and shading the sample location using an output from the biased ray tracing engine.