Graph-based Global Illumination

• Main Author: Ricks, Brian C.
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2010
• Subjects: global illumination; computational complexity; Computer Sciences
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2423; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3422&context=etd

The slow render times of global illumination algorithms make them impractical in most commercial and academic settings. We propose a novel framework for calculating the computational complexity of global illumination algorithms and show that no other recent improvements have reduced this complexity. We further show that many algorithms use a tree as their rendering paradigm. We propose a new rendering algorithm, pipe casting, which calculates light paths using a graph instead of a tree. Pipe casting significantly reduces both computational complexity and actual render time of rendering. Using an L2 pixel-wise error comparison, on average our algorithm can render a variety of scenes at the same error as traditional algorithms but in about 50% of the time.