Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping [Hardcover]

Photon mapping, an extension of ray tracing, makes it possible to efficiently simulate global illumination in complex scenes. Photon mapping can simulate caustics (focused light, like shimmering waves at the bottom of a swimming pool), diffuse inter-reflections (e.g., the bleeding of colored light from a red wall onto a white floor, giving the floor a reddish tint), and participating media (such as clouds or smoke). This book is a practical guide to photon mapping; it provides the theory and practical insight necessary to implement photon mapping and simulate all types of direct and indirect illumination efficiently.

Introduction
Realistic Image Synthesis
Global Illumination
Overview of This Book
Fundamentals of Global Illumination
The Nature of Light
Lighting Terminology
Light Emission
Light Scattering
The Rendering Equation
Light Transport Notation
Monte Carlo Ray Tracing
Classic Ray Tracing
Path Tracing
Bidirectional Path Tracing
Metropolis Light Transport
The Photon-Mapping Concept
Motivation
Developing the Model
Overview
Photon Tracing
Photon Emission
Photon Scattering
Photon Storing
The Photon Map Data Structure
The Data Structure
Photon Representation
The Balanced Kd-Tree
Locating the Nearest Photons Efficiently
The Radiance Estimate
Density Estimation
Derivation
Algorithm
Filtering
Photon Gathering
Visualizing the Photon Map
Rendering Caustics
Rendering Color Bleeding
Fast Approximations
Caustics Examples
A Practical Two-Pass Algorithm
Overview