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Photo-realistic Rendering and Global Illumination in Computer Graphics Spring 2012 Ultimate Realism and Speed. K. H. Ko School of Mechatronics Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. Introduction. The quest for realism and speed has not yet come to an end. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Photo-realistic Rendering and Global Illumination in Computer Graphics
Spring 2012
Ultimate Realism and Speed
K H Ko
School of MechatronicsGwangju Institute of Science and Technology
2
Introduction The quest for realism and speed has not yet
come to an end Derivation of the rendering equation was made
based on several restrictions imposed on light transport
Wave effects could be ignored Radiance is conserved along its path between
mutually visible surfaces Light scattering happens instantaneously Scattered light has the same wavelength as the
incident beam It scatters from the same location where it hits a
surface
3
Introduction However such assumptions are not always
true
Phenomena such as polarization diffraction interference fluorescence and phosphorescence which do not fall within the assumptions for the rendering equation should be considered in order to obtain high realism
4
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media It was assumed that radiance is conserved along
its path between unoccluded surfaces The underlying idea was that all photons leaving the
first surface needed to land on the second one because nothing could happen to them along their path of flight
This is not always true Photons reflected or emitted by a car in front of us on the road
will often not reach us They will rather be absorbed or scattered by billions of tiny water
or fog droplets immersed in the air Light coming from the sky above will be scattered towards us The net effect is that distant objects fade away in gray
Our assumption of radiance conservation between surfaces is only true in a vacuum
In this case the relation between emitted radiance and incident radiance at mutually visible surface points x and y along direction θ is given by L(x-gtθ) = L(ylt- -θ)
5
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media If a vacuum is not filling the space between
object surfaces this will cause photons to change direction and to transform into other forms of energy
Four processes are considered volume emission absorption out-scattering and in-scattering
6
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media
Considering such phenomena allows us to generalize the rendering equation
7
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission The intensity by which a medium like fire glows
can be characterized by a volume emittance function ε(z) (units [Wm3])
It tells us basically how many photons per unit of volume and per unit of time are emitted at a point z in three-dimensional space
There is a close relationship between the number of photons and energy
Each photon of a fixed wavelength λ carries an energy quantum equal to 2πhcλ h is Planckrsquos constant and c is the speed of light
Many interesting graphics effects are possible by modeling volume light sources
Usually volume emission is isotropic meaning that the number of photons emitted in any direction around z is equal to ε(z)4π (units [Wm3sr])
8
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission Consider a point z = x + sθ along a thin pencil
connecting mutually visible surface points x and y
The radiance added along direction θ due to volume emission in a pencil slice of infinitesimal thickness ds at z is
4
)()( ds
zzdL
9
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Photons traveling along our pencil form x to y
will collide with the medium causing them to be absorbed or change direction (scattering)
Absorption means that their energy is converted into a different kind of energy for instance kinetic energy of the particles in the medium
Transformation into kinetic energy is observed at a macroscopic level as the medium heating up by radiation
10
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption The probability that a photon gets absorbed in a
volume per unit of distance along its direction of propagation is called the absorption coefficient σa(z) (units [1m])
A photon traveling a distance Δs in a medium has a chance σa Δs of being absorbed
The absorption coefficient can vary from place to place
Absorption is usually isotropic a photon has the same chance of being absorbed regardless of its direction of flight
Absorption causes the radiance along the thin pencil from x to y to decrease exponentially with distance
Consider a pencil slice of thickness Δs at z = x + sθ The number of photons entering the slice at z is
proportional to the radiance L(z-gt θ) along the pencil
11
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Assuming that the absorption coefficient is
equal everywhere in the slice a fraction σa(z)Δs of these photons will be absorbed
The radiance coming out on the other side of the slice at z + sθ will be
In a homogeneous nonscattering and nonemissive medium the reduced radiance at z along the pencil will be
sxzzzLs
zLszL
or
szzLzLszL
a
a
)()()()(
)()()()(
saexLzL )()(
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
2
Introduction The quest for realism and speed has not yet
come to an end Derivation of the rendering equation was made
based on several restrictions imposed on light transport
Wave effects could be ignored Radiance is conserved along its path between
mutually visible surfaces Light scattering happens instantaneously Scattered light has the same wavelength as the
incident beam It scatters from the same location where it hits a
surface
3
Introduction However such assumptions are not always
true
Phenomena such as polarization diffraction interference fluorescence and phosphorescence which do not fall within the assumptions for the rendering equation should be considered in order to obtain high realism
4
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media It was assumed that radiance is conserved along
its path between unoccluded surfaces The underlying idea was that all photons leaving the
first surface needed to land on the second one because nothing could happen to them along their path of flight
This is not always true Photons reflected or emitted by a car in front of us on the road
will often not reach us They will rather be absorbed or scattered by billions of tiny water
or fog droplets immersed in the air Light coming from the sky above will be scattered towards us The net effect is that distant objects fade away in gray
Our assumption of radiance conservation between surfaces is only true in a vacuum
In this case the relation between emitted radiance and incident radiance at mutually visible surface points x and y along direction θ is given by L(x-gtθ) = L(ylt- -θ)
5
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media If a vacuum is not filling the space between
object surfaces this will cause photons to change direction and to transform into other forms of energy
Four processes are considered volume emission absorption out-scattering and in-scattering
6
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media
Considering such phenomena allows us to generalize the rendering equation
7
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission The intensity by which a medium like fire glows
can be characterized by a volume emittance function ε(z) (units [Wm3])
It tells us basically how many photons per unit of volume and per unit of time are emitted at a point z in three-dimensional space
There is a close relationship between the number of photons and energy
Each photon of a fixed wavelength λ carries an energy quantum equal to 2πhcλ h is Planckrsquos constant and c is the speed of light
Many interesting graphics effects are possible by modeling volume light sources
Usually volume emission is isotropic meaning that the number of photons emitted in any direction around z is equal to ε(z)4π (units [Wm3sr])
8
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission Consider a point z = x + sθ along a thin pencil
connecting mutually visible surface points x and y
The radiance added along direction θ due to volume emission in a pencil slice of infinitesimal thickness ds at z is
4
)()( ds
zzdL
9
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Photons traveling along our pencil form x to y
will collide with the medium causing them to be absorbed or change direction (scattering)
Absorption means that their energy is converted into a different kind of energy for instance kinetic energy of the particles in the medium
Transformation into kinetic energy is observed at a macroscopic level as the medium heating up by radiation
10
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption The probability that a photon gets absorbed in a
volume per unit of distance along its direction of propagation is called the absorption coefficient σa(z) (units [1m])
A photon traveling a distance Δs in a medium has a chance σa Δs of being absorbed
The absorption coefficient can vary from place to place
Absorption is usually isotropic a photon has the same chance of being absorbed regardless of its direction of flight
Absorption causes the radiance along the thin pencil from x to y to decrease exponentially with distance
Consider a pencil slice of thickness Δs at z = x + sθ The number of photons entering the slice at z is
proportional to the radiance L(z-gt θ) along the pencil
11
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Assuming that the absorption coefficient is
equal everywhere in the slice a fraction σa(z)Δs of these photons will be absorbed
The radiance coming out on the other side of the slice at z + sθ will be
In a homogeneous nonscattering and nonemissive medium the reduced radiance at z along the pencil will be
sxzzzLs
zLszL
or
szzLzLszL
a
a
)()()()(
)()()()(
saexLzL )()(
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
3
Introduction However such assumptions are not always
true
Phenomena such as polarization diffraction interference fluorescence and phosphorescence which do not fall within the assumptions for the rendering equation should be considered in order to obtain high realism
4
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media It was assumed that radiance is conserved along
its path between unoccluded surfaces The underlying idea was that all photons leaving the
first surface needed to land on the second one because nothing could happen to them along their path of flight
This is not always true Photons reflected or emitted by a car in front of us on the road
will often not reach us They will rather be absorbed or scattered by billions of tiny water
or fog droplets immersed in the air Light coming from the sky above will be scattered towards us The net effect is that distant objects fade away in gray
Our assumption of radiance conservation between surfaces is only true in a vacuum
In this case the relation between emitted radiance and incident radiance at mutually visible surface points x and y along direction θ is given by L(x-gtθ) = L(ylt- -θ)
5
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media If a vacuum is not filling the space between
object surfaces this will cause photons to change direction and to transform into other forms of energy
Four processes are considered volume emission absorption out-scattering and in-scattering
6
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media
Considering such phenomena allows us to generalize the rendering equation
7
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission The intensity by which a medium like fire glows
can be characterized by a volume emittance function ε(z) (units [Wm3])
It tells us basically how many photons per unit of volume and per unit of time are emitted at a point z in three-dimensional space
There is a close relationship between the number of photons and energy
Each photon of a fixed wavelength λ carries an energy quantum equal to 2πhcλ h is Planckrsquos constant and c is the speed of light
Many interesting graphics effects are possible by modeling volume light sources
Usually volume emission is isotropic meaning that the number of photons emitted in any direction around z is equal to ε(z)4π (units [Wm3sr])
8
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission Consider a point z = x + sθ along a thin pencil
connecting mutually visible surface points x and y
The radiance added along direction θ due to volume emission in a pencil slice of infinitesimal thickness ds at z is
4
)()( ds
zzdL
9
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Photons traveling along our pencil form x to y
will collide with the medium causing them to be absorbed or change direction (scattering)
Absorption means that their energy is converted into a different kind of energy for instance kinetic energy of the particles in the medium
Transformation into kinetic energy is observed at a macroscopic level as the medium heating up by radiation
10
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption The probability that a photon gets absorbed in a
volume per unit of distance along its direction of propagation is called the absorption coefficient σa(z) (units [1m])
A photon traveling a distance Δs in a medium has a chance σa Δs of being absorbed
The absorption coefficient can vary from place to place
Absorption is usually isotropic a photon has the same chance of being absorbed regardless of its direction of flight
Absorption causes the radiance along the thin pencil from x to y to decrease exponentially with distance
Consider a pencil slice of thickness Δs at z = x + sθ The number of photons entering the slice at z is
proportional to the radiance L(z-gt θ) along the pencil
11
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Assuming that the absorption coefficient is
equal everywhere in the slice a fraction σa(z)Δs of these photons will be absorbed
The radiance coming out on the other side of the slice at z + sθ will be
In a homogeneous nonscattering and nonemissive medium the reduced radiance at z along the pencil will be
sxzzzLs
zLszL
or
szzLzLszL
a
a
)()()()(
)()()()(
saexLzL )()(
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
4
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media It was assumed that radiance is conserved along
its path between unoccluded surfaces The underlying idea was that all photons leaving the
first surface needed to land on the second one because nothing could happen to them along their path of flight
This is not always true Photons reflected or emitted by a car in front of us on the road
will often not reach us They will rather be absorbed or scattered by billions of tiny water
or fog droplets immersed in the air Light coming from the sky above will be scattered towards us The net effect is that distant objects fade away in gray
Our assumption of radiance conservation between surfaces is only true in a vacuum
In this case the relation between emitted radiance and incident radiance at mutually visible surface points x and y along direction θ is given by L(x-gtθ) = L(ylt- -θ)
5
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media If a vacuum is not filling the space between
object surfaces this will cause photons to change direction and to transform into other forms of energy
Four processes are considered volume emission absorption out-scattering and in-scattering
6
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media
Considering such phenomena allows us to generalize the rendering equation
7
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission The intensity by which a medium like fire glows
can be characterized by a volume emittance function ε(z) (units [Wm3])
It tells us basically how many photons per unit of volume and per unit of time are emitted at a point z in three-dimensional space
There is a close relationship between the number of photons and energy
Each photon of a fixed wavelength λ carries an energy quantum equal to 2πhcλ h is Planckrsquos constant and c is the speed of light
Many interesting graphics effects are possible by modeling volume light sources
Usually volume emission is isotropic meaning that the number of photons emitted in any direction around z is equal to ε(z)4π (units [Wm3sr])
8
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission Consider a point z = x + sθ along a thin pencil
connecting mutually visible surface points x and y
The radiance added along direction θ due to volume emission in a pencil slice of infinitesimal thickness ds at z is
4
)()( ds
zzdL
9
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Photons traveling along our pencil form x to y
will collide with the medium causing them to be absorbed or change direction (scattering)
Absorption means that their energy is converted into a different kind of energy for instance kinetic energy of the particles in the medium
Transformation into kinetic energy is observed at a macroscopic level as the medium heating up by radiation
10
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption The probability that a photon gets absorbed in a
volume per unit of distance along its direction of propagation is called the absorption coefficient σa(z) (units [1m])
A photon traveling a distance Δs in a medium has a chance σa Δs of being absorbed
The absorption coefficient can vary from place to place
Absorption is usually isotropic a photon has the same chance of being absorbed regardless of its direction of flight
Absorption causes the radiance along the thin pencil from x to y to decrease exponentially with distance
Consider a pencil slice of thickness Δs at z = x + sθ The number of photons entering the slice at z is
proportional to the radiance L(z-gt θ) along the pencil
11
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Assuming that the absorption coefficient is
equal everywhere in the slice a fraction σa(z)Δs of these photons will be absorbed
The radiance coming out on the other side of the slice at z + sθ will be
In a homogeneous nonscattering and nonemissive medium the reduced radiance at z along the pencil will be
sxzzzLs
zLszL
or
szzLzLszL
a
a
)()()()(
)()()()(
saexLzL )()(
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
5
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media If a vacuum is not filling the space between
object surfaces this will cause photons to change direction and to transform into other forms of energy
Four processes are considered volume emission absorption out-scattering and in-scattering
6
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media
Considering such phenomena allows us to generalize the rendering equation
7
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission The intensity by which a medium like fire glows
can be characterized by a volume emittance function ε(z) (units [Wm3])
It tells us basically how many photons per unit of volume and per unit of time are emitted at a point z in three-dimensional space
There is a close relationship between the number of photons and energy
Each photon of a fixed wavelength λ carries an energy quantum equal to 2πhcλ h is Planckrsquos constant and c is the speed of light
Many interesting graphics effects are possible by modeling volume light sources
Usually volume emission is isotropic meaning that the number of photons emitted in any direction around z is equal to ε(z)4π (units [Wm3sr])
8
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission Consider a point z = x + sθ along a thin pencil
connecting mutually visible surface points x and y
The radiance added along direction θ due to volume emission in a pencil slice of infinitesimal thickness ds at z is
4
)()( ds
zzdL
9
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Photons traveling along our pencil form x to y
will collide with the medium causing them to be absorbed or change direction (scattering)
Absorption means that their energy is converted into a different kind of energy for instance kinetic energy of the particles in the medium
Transformation into kinetic energy is observed at a macroscopic level as the medium heating up by radiation
10
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption The probability that a photon gets absorbed in a
volume per unit of distance along its direction of propagation is called the absorption coefficient σa(z) (units [1m])
A photon traveling a distance Δs in a medium has a chance σa Δs of being absorbed
The absorption coefficient can vary from place to place
Absorption is usually isotropic a photon has the same chance of being absorbed regardless of its direction of flight
Absorption causes the radiance along the thin pencil from x to y to decrease exponentially with distance
Consider a pencil slice of thickness Δs at z = x + sθ The number of photons entering the slice at z is
proportional to the radiance L(z-gt θ) along the pencil
11
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Assuming that the absorption coefficient is
equal everywhere in the slice a fraction σa(z)Δs of these photons will be absorbed
The radiance coming out on the other side of the slice at z + sθ will be
In a homogeneous nonscattering and nonemissive medium the reduced radiance at z along the pencil will be
sxzzzLs
zLszL
or
szzLzLszL
a
a
)()()()(
)()()()(
saexLzL )()(
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
6
Beyond the Rendering Equation Participating Media
Considering such phenomena allows us to generalize the rendering equation
7
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission The intensity by which a medium like fire glows
can be characterized by a volume emittance function ε(z) (units [Wm3])
It tells us basically how many photons per unit of volume and per unit of time are emitted at a point z in three-dimensional space
There is a close relationship between the number of photons and energy
Each photon of a fixed wavelength λ carries an energy quantum equal to 2πhcλ h is Planckrsquos constant and c is the speed of light
Many interesting graphics effects are possible by modeling volume light sources
Usually volume emission is isotropic meaning that the number of photons emitted in any direction around z is equal to ε(z)4π (units [Wm3sr])
8
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission Consider a point z = x + sθ along a thin pencil
connecting mutually visible surface points x and y
The radiance added along direction θ due to volume emission in a pencil slice of infinitesimal thickness ds at z is
4
)()( ds
zzdL
9
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Photons traveling along our pencil form x to y
will collide with the medium causing them to be absorbed or change direction (scattering)
Absorption means that their energy is converted into a different kind of energy for instance kinetic energy of the particles in the medium
Transformation into kinetic energy is observed at a macroscopic level as the medium heating up by radiation
10
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption The probability that a photon gets absorbed in a
volume per unit of distance along its direction of propagation is called the absorption coefficient σa(z) (units [1m])
A photon traveling a distance Δs in a medium has a chance σa Δs of being absorbed
The absorption coefficient can vary from place to place
Absorption is usually isotropic a photon has the same chance of being absorbed regardless of its direction of flight
Absorption causes the radiance along the thin pencil from x to y to decrease exponentially with distance
Consider a pencil slice of thickness Δs at z = x + sθ The number of photons entering the slice at z is
proportional to the radiance L(z-gt θ) along the pencil
11
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Assuming that the absorption coefficient is
equal everywhere in the slice a fraction σa(z)Δs of these photons will be absorbed
The radiance coming out on the other side of the slice at z + sθ will be
In a homogeneous nonscattering and nonemissive medium the reduced radiance at z along the pencil will be
sxzzzLs
zLszL
or
szzLzLszL
a
a
)()()()(
)()()()(
saexLzL )()(
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
7
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission The intensity by which a medium like fire glows
can be characterized by a volume emittance function ε(z) (units [Wm3])
It tells us basically how many photons per unit of volume and per unit of time are emitted at a point z in three-dimensional space
There is a close relationship between the number of photons and energy
Each photon of a fixed wavelength λ carries an energy quantum equal to 2πhcλ h is Planckrsquos constant and c is the speed of light
Many interesting graphics effects are possible by modeling volume light sources
Usually volume emission is isotropic meaning that the number of photons emitted in any direction around z is equal to ε(z)4π (units [Wm3sr])
8
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission Consider a point z = x + sθ along a thin pencil
connecting mutually visible surface points x and y
The radiance added along direction θ due to volume emission in a pencil slice of infinitesimal thickness ds at z is
4
)()( ds
zzdL
9
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Photons traveling along our pencil form x to y
will collide with the medium causing them to be absorbed or change direction (scattering)
Absorption means that their energy is converted into a different kind of energy for instance kinetic energy of the particles in the medium
Transformation into kinetic energy is observed at a macroscopic level as the medium heating up by radiation
10
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption The probability that a photon gets absorbed in a
volume per unit of distance along its direction of propagation is called the absorption coefficient σa(z) (units [1m])
A photon traveling a distance Δs in a medium has a chance σa Δs of being absorbed
The absorption coefficient can vary from place to place
Absorption is usually isotropic a photon has the same chance of being absorbed regardless of its direction of flight
Absorption causes the radiance along the thin pencil from x to y to decrease exponentially with distance
Consider a pencil slice of thickness Δs at z = x + sθ The number of photons entering the slice at z is
proportional to the radiance L(z-gt θ) along the pencil
11
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Assuming that the absorption coefficient is
equal everywhere in the slice a fraction σa(z)Δs of these photons will be absorbed
The radiance coming out on the other side of the slice at z + sθ will be
In a homogeneous nonscattering and nonemissive medium the reduced radiance at z along the pencil will be
sxzzzLs
zLszL
or
szzLzLszL
a
a
)()()()(
)()()()(
saexLzL )()(
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
8
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Emission Consider a point z = x + sθ along a thin pencil
connecting mutually visible surface points x and y
The radiance added along direction θ due to volume emission in a pencil slice of infinitesimal thickness ds at z is
4
)()( ds
zzdL
9
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Photons traveling along our pencil form x to y
will collide with the medium causing them to be absorbed or change direction (scattering)
Absorption means that their energy is converted into a different kind of energy for instance kinetic energy of the particles in the medium
Transformation into kinetic energy is observed at a macroscopic level as the medium heating up by radiation
10
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption The probability that a photon gets absorbed in a
volume per unit of distance along its direction of propagation is called the absorption coefficient σa(z) (units [1m])
A photon traveling a distance Δs in a medium has a chance σa Δs of being absorbed
The absorption coefficient can vary from place to place
Absorption is usually isotropic a photon has the same chance of being absorbed regardless of its direction of flight
Absorption causes the radiance along the thin pencil from x to y to decrease exponentially with distance
Consider a pencil slice of thickness Δs at z = x + sθ The number of photons entering the slice at z is
proportional to the radiance L(z-gt θ) along the pencil
11
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Assuming that the absorption coefficient is
equal everywhere in the slice a fraction σa(z)Δs of these photons will be absorbed
The radiance coming out on the other side of the slice at z + sθ will be
In a homogeneous nonscattering and nonemissive medium the reduced radiance at z along the pencil will be
sxzzzLs
zLszL
or
szzLzLszL
a
a
)()()()(
)()()()(
saexLzL )()(
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
9
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Photons traveling along our pencil form x to y
will collide with the medium causing them to be absorbed or change direction (scattering)
Absorption means that their energy is converted into a different kind of energy for instance kinetic energy of the particles in the medium
Transformation into kinetic energy is observed at a macroscopic level as the medium heating up by radiation
10
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption The probability that a photon gets absorbed in a
volume per unit of distance along its direction of propagation is called the absorption coefficient σa(z) (units [1m])
A photon traveling a distance Δs in a medium has a chance σa Δs of being absorbed
The absorption coefficient can vary from place to place
Absorption is usually isotropic a photon has the same chance of being absorbed regardless of its direction of flight
Absorption causes the radiance along the thin pencil from x to y to decrease exponentially with distance
Consider a pencil slice of thickness Δs at z = x + sθ The number of photons entering the slice at z is
proportional to the radiance L(z-gt θ) along the pencil
11
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Assuming that the absorption coefficient is
equal everywhere in the slice a fraction σa(z)Δs of these photons will be absorbed
The radiance coming out on the other side of the slice at z + sθ will be
In a homogeneous nonscattering and nonemissive medium the reduced radiance at z along the pencil will be
sxzzzLs
zLszL
or
szzLzLszL
a
a
)()()()(
)()()()(
saexLzL )()(
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
10
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption The probability that a photon gets absorbed in a
volume per unit of distance along its direction of propagation is called the absorption coefficient σa(z) (units [1m])
A photon traveling a distance Δs in a medium has a chance σa Δs of being absorbed
The absorption coefficient can vary from place to place
Absorption is usually isotropic a photon has the same chance of being absorbed regardless of its direction of flight
Absorption causes the radiance along the thin pencil from x to y to decrease exponentially with distance
Consider a pencil slice of thickness Δs at z = x + sθ The number of photons entering the slice at z is
proportional to the radiance L(z-gt θ) along the pencil
11
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Assuming that the absorption coefficient is
equal everywhere in the slice a fraction σa(z)Δs of these photons will be absorbed
The radiance coming out on the other side of the slice at z + sθ will be
In a homogeneous nonscattering and nonemissive medium the reduced radiance at z along the pencil will be
sxzzzLs
zLszL
or
szzLzLszL
a
a
)()()()(
)()()()(
saexLzL )()(
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
11
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption Assuming that the absorption coefficient is
equal everywhere in the slice a fraction σa(z)Δs of these photons will be absorbed
The radiance coming out on the other side of the slice at z + sθ will be
In a homogeneous nonscattering and nonemissive medium the reduced radiance at z along the pencil will be
sxzzzLs
zLszL
or
szzLzLszL
a
a
)()()()(
)()()()(
saexLzL )()(
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
12
Beyond the Rendering Equation Absorption This exponential decrease of radiance with
distance is sometimes called Beerrsquos Law It is a good model for colored glass for
instance and has been used for many years in classic ray tracing
If the absorption varies along the considered photon path Beerrsquos Law looks like this
)(exp)()(0
s
a dttxxLzL
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
13
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The radiance along the pencil will not only
reduce because of absorption but also because photons will be scattered into other directions by the particles along their path
The effect of out-scattering is almost identical to that of absorption
One just needs to replace the absorption coefficient by the scattering coefficient σs(z) (units[1m]) which indicates the probability of scattering per unit of distance along the photon path
Rather than using σa(z) and σs(z) it is sometimes more convenient to describe the processes in a participating medium by means of the total extinction coefficient σt(z) and the albedo α(z)
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
14
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The extinction coefficient σt(z) = σa(z)+σs(z)
(units[1m]) gives us the probability per unit distance along the path of flight that a photon collides with the medium
Then the reduced radiance at z is given by
In a homogeneous medium the average distance between two subsequent collisions can be shown to be 1σt (units[m])
The average distance between subsequent collisions is called the mean free path
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
15
Beyond the Rendering Equation Out-Scattering Extinction Coefficient and Albedo The albedo α(z)= σs(z)σt(z) (dimensionless) describes
the relative importance of scattering versus absorption
It gives us the probability that a photon will be scattered rather than absorbed when colliding with the medium at z
The albedo is the volume equivalent of the reflectivity ρ at surfaces
Note that the extinction coefficient was not needed for describing surface scattering since all photons hitting a surface are supposed to scatter or to be absorbed
In the absence of participating media one could model the extinction coefficient by means of a Dirac delta function along the photon path
It is zero everywhere except at the first surface boundary met where scattering or absorption happens for sure
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
16
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The out-scattered photons change direction
and enter different pencils between surface points In the same way photons out-scattered from other pencils will enter the pencil between the x and y we are considering This entry of photons due to scattering is called in-scattering
Similar to volume emission the intensity of in-scattering is described by a volume density Lvi(z-gtθ) (units [Wm3sr])
The amount of in-scattered radiance in a pencil slice of thickness ds will be
)()( dszLzdL vii
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
17
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function A first condition for in-scattering at a location z
is that there is scattering at z at all σs(z)=α(z)σt(z)ne0
The amount of in-scattered radiance further depends on the field radiance L(zΨ) along other direction Ψ at z and the phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ)
Field radiance is the usual concept of radiance It describes the amount of light energy flux in a given direction per unit of solid angle and per unit area perpendicular to that direction
The product of field radiance with the extinction coefficient Lv(zΨ)=L(zΨ)σt(z) describes the number of photons entering collisions with the medium at z per unit of time
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
18
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Being a volume density it is sometimes called
the volume radiance (units [1m3sr]) Note that the volume radiance will be zero in
empty space The field radiance however does not need to
be zero and fulfills the law of radiance conservation in empty space
For surface scattering no distinction is needed between field radiance and surface radiance since all photons interact at a surface
Of these photons entering collision with the medium at z a fraction α(z) will be scattered
Unlike emission and absorption scattering is usually not isotropic
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
19
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Photons may scatter with higher intensity in
certain directions than in others The phase function p(zΨlt-gtθ) plays the role
of the BSDF for volume scattering Just like BSDFs it is reciprocal and energy
conservation must be satisfied It is convenient to normalize the phase function so
that its integral over all possible directions is one
Energy conservation is then clearly satisfied since α(z) lt 1
1)(
dzp
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
20
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Putting this together we arrive a the following
volume scattering equation
The volume scattering equation is the volume equivalent of the surface scattering equation
It describes how scattered volume radiance is the integral over all directions of the volume radiance Lv(z-gtΨ) weighted with α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ)
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
21
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Lv(z-gtΨ) is the volume equivalent of surface
radiance α(z)p(zΨlt-gtθ) is the equivalent of the BSDF
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
22
Beyond the Rendering Equation The Rendering Equation in the Presence of Participating Media
The above two equations model how volume emission and in-scattering add radiance along a ray from x to y
This equation describes how radiance is reduced due to absorption and out-scattering
4
)()( ds
zzdL
)()()(
)()()()(
dzLzpz
dzLzpzzL
s
vvi
)(exp)()()()(0
xzr
tr dttxzxwithzxxLzL
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
23
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Not only the surface radiance L(x-gtθ) inserted
into the pencil at x is reduced in this way but also all radiance inserted along the pencil due to in-scattering and volume emission is reduced
The combined effect is
For compactness let z = x+rθ and
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
)(4)()( zLzzL vi
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
24
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The transmittance τ(zy) indicates how
radiance is attenuated between z and y
The equation below replaces the law of radiance conservation in the presence of participating media
)(exp)(0
zyr
t dsszyz
)()()()()(0 xyr
dryzzLzxxLyL
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
25
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
Then the following rendering equation is obtained in the presence of participating media
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
26
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The rendering equation was obtained by using
the law of radiance conservation in order to replace the incoming radiance L(xlt-Ψ) in
by the outgoing radiance L(y-gt-Ψ) at the first surface point y seen from x in the direction Ψ
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
27
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Then the following rendering equation is
obtained in the presence of participating media
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
28
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function The in-scattered radiance Lvi in L+(z-gt-
Ψ)=ε(z)4π+Lvi(z-gt-Ψ) is expressed in terms of field radiance
Field radiance is expressed in terms of surface radiance and volume emitted and in-scattered radiance elsewhere in the volume
Participating media can be handled by extending the rendering equation in two ways
Attenuation of radiance received from other surfaces the factor τ(xy) in the former integral
A volume contribution the latter integral
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
29
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
In order to better understand how to trace photon trajectories in the presence of participating media it is instructive to transform the integrals to a surface and volume integral
The relation between differential solid angle and surface is available rxy
2dωΨ=V(xy)cos(-ΨNy)dAy A similar relationship exists between drdωΨ and
differential volume rxz2drdωΨ=V(xz)dVz
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
30
Beyond the Rendering Equation In-Scattering Field-and Volume-Radiance and the Phase Function Spatial Formulation
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
31
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media There exist two types of methods
deterministic and stochastic Deterministic Approaches
Classic and hierarchical radiosity methods have been extended to handle participating media by discretizing the volume integral above into volume elements and assuming that the radiance in each volume element is isotropic
Many other deterministic approaches have been proposed based on spherical harmonics and discrete ordinates methods
Deterministic approaches are valuable in relatively easy settings for instance homogeneous media with isotropic scattering or simple geometries
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
32
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Stochastic Approaches
Various authors have proposed extensions to path tracing to handle participating media
The extension of bidirectional path tracing to handle participating media has been proposed
These path-tracing approaches are flexible and accurate
But they become enormously costly in optically thick media where photons suffer many collisions and trajectories are long
A good compromise between accuracy and speed is offered by volume photon density estimation methods
In particular the extension of photon mapping to participating media is a reliable and affordable method capable of rendering highly advanced effects such as volume caustics
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
33
Beyond the Rendering Equation Global Illumination Algorithms for Participating Media Monte Carlo and volume photon density
estimation are methods of choice for optically thin media in which photons undergo only relatively few collisions
For optically thick media they become intractable
Highly scattering optically thick media can be handled with the diffusion approximation
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
34
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Photon trajectory tracing can be extended to deal
with participating media
Sampling volume emission Light particles may not only be emitted at surfaces but
also in midspace Frist a decision needs to be made whether to sample
surface emission or volume emission This decision can be a random decision based on the
relative amount of self-emitted power by surfaces and volumes
If volume emission is to be sampled a location somewhere in midspace needs to be selected based on the volume emission density ε(z)
Bright spots in the participating media shall give birth to more photons than dim regions
Finally a direction needs to be sampled at the chosen location
Since volume emission is usually isotropic a direction can be sampled with uniform probability across a sphere
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
35
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In the absence of participating media a photon emitted from point x into direction θ always collides on the first surface seen from x along the direction θ
With participating media however scattering and absorption may also happen at every location in the volume along a line to the first surface hit
A good way to handle this problem is to sample a distance along the ray from x into θ based on the transmittance factor
One draws a uniformly distributed random number ζisin[01) and finds the distance τ corresponding to
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
36
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
In a homogeneous medium r = -log(1-ζ)σt In a heterogeneous medium sampling such a
distance is less trivial It can be done exactly if the extinction coefficient is
given as a voxel grid by extending ray-grid traversal algorithms
For procedurally generated media one can step along the ray in small possibly adaptively chosen intervals
If the selected distance becomes greater than or equal to the distance to the first surface hit point of the ray surface scattering shall be selected as the next event
If the sampled distance is nearer volume scattering is chosen
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
37
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling a next collision location
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
38
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Sampling scattering or absorption
Sampling scattering or absorption in a volume is pretty much the same as for surfaces
The decision whether to scatter or absorb will be based on the albedo α(z) for volumes just like the reflectivity ρ(z) is used for surfaces
Sampling a scattered direction is done by sampling the phase function p(zθlt-gtΨ) for volumes
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
39
Beyond the Rendering Equation Tracing Photon Trajectories in Participating Media Connecting path vertices
Algorithms such as path tracing and bidirectional path tracing require us to connect path vertices for instance a surface or volume hit with a light source position for a shadow ray
Without participating media the contribution associated with such a connection between points x and y is
In the presence of participating media the contribution shall be
With Cx(θ)=cos(Nxθ) if x is a surface point or 1 if it is a volume point
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
40
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation In order to render participating media it is necessary
to estimate the volume density of photons colliding with the medium in midspace
A histogram method would discretize the space into volume bins and count photon collisions in each bin
The ratio of the number of photon hits over the volume of the bin is an estimate for the volume radiance in the bin
Photon mapping has been extended with a volume photon map a third kd-tree for storing photon hit points in the same spirit as the caustic and global photon map
The volume photon map contains the photons that collide with the medium in midspace
Rather than finding the smallest disc containing a given number N of photon hit points as was done on surfaces one will search for the smallest sphere containing volume photons around a query location
Again the ratio of the number of photons and the volume of the sphere yields an estimate for the volume radiance
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
41
Beyond the Rendering Equation Volume Photon Density Estimation Viewing Precomputed Illumination in
Participating Media
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
42
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The volume rendering equation is not the only
way light transport can be described mathematically
An interesting alternative is to consider the flow of light energy as a diffusion process
This point of view has been shown to result in efficient algorithms for dealing with highly scattering optically thick participating media such as clouds
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
43
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Diffuse Approximation Method
The idea is to split field radiance in a participating media into two contributions which are computed separately
The first part Lr called reduced radiance is the radiance that reaches point x directly from a light source or from the boundary of the participating medium It needs to be computed first
The second part Ld called diffuse radiance is radiance scattered one or more times in the medium
In a highly scattering optically thick medium the computation of diffuse radiance is hard to do according to the rendering equation
Multiple scattering however tends to smear out the angular dependence of diffuse radiance
Indeed each time a photon scatters in the medium its direction is randomly changed as dictated by the phase function
After many scattering events the probability of finding the photon traveling in any direction will be nearly uniform
)x(L)x(L)x(L dr
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
44
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process One approximates diffuse radiance by the
following function which varies only a little with direction
Ud(x) represents the average diffuse radiance at x
))x(F()x(U)x(Ldd
d
4
3
d)x(L)x(U dd
4
1
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
45
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process The diffuse flux vector models the direction
and magnitude of the multiple scattered light energy flow through x
The average diffuse radiance Ud(x) fulfills a steady-state diffusion equation
d)cos()x(L))x(F(d
)x(Q)x(U)x(U dtr
d 22
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary
46
Beyond the Rendering Equation Light Transport as a Diffusion Process Once the diffusion equation has been solved
the reduced radiance and the gradient of Ud(x) allows us to compute the flux vector wherever it is needed
The flux vector in turn yields the radiosity flowing through any given real or imaginary surface boundary