A Parallel Architecture for Interactively Rendering Scattering and Refraction Effects

Author

Bernabei, D. ; Hakke-Patil, A.H. ; Banterle, Francesco ; Di Benedetto, M. ; Ganovelli, F. ; Pattanaik, S. ; Scopigno, R.

Author_Institution

Italian Nat. Res. Council, Pisa, Italy

Volume

32

Issue

2

fYear

2012

Firstpage

34

Lastpage

43

Abstract

A new method for interactive rendering of complex lighting effects combines two algorithms. The first performs accurate ray tracing in heterogeneous refractive media to compute high-frequency phenomena. The second applies lattice-Boltzmann lighting to account for low-frequency multiple-scattering effects. The two algorithms execute in parallel on modern graphics hardware. This article includes a video animation of the authors´ real-time algorithm rendering a variety of scenes.

Keywords

computer animation; graphics processing units; lighting; parallel architectures; ray tracing; rendering (computer graphics); complex lighting effect; graphics hardware; heterogeneous refractive media; high-frequency phenomena; interactive rendering method; lattice-Boltzmann lighting; low-frequency multiple-scattering effect; parallel architecture; ray tracing; refraction effect; scattering effect; scene rendering; video animation; Interactive systems; Lighting; Mathematical model; Photonics; Real time systems; Rendering (computer graphics); Scattering; computer graphics; heterogeneous materials; lattice-Boltzmann lighting; multiple scattering; real-time graphics; single scattering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0272-1716

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MCG.2011.106

Filename

6086521