02 Rendering Zsolnai Ray Tracing

Rendering
186.101
Károly Zsolnai-Fehér
Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms (E186)

Vienna University of Technology
http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/staff/KarolyZsolnai.html
Assignments
Assignments – 40%
Playful practical assignments with ray tracing
programs, and later with LuxRender
Simple mathematical problems you’ll find
very interesting
5
Assignments
Assignments – 40%
Playful practical assignments with ray tracing
programs, and later with LuxRender
Simple mathematical problems you’ll find very
interesting
Oral exam – 60%

Mostly the explanation of what you did in your
homework assignments – what was correct,
what went wrong
A bit of discussion on the topic of ray tracing
6
Assignments
Assignments – 40%
Playful practical assignments with ray tracing programs, and later
with LuxRender
Simple mathematical problems you’ll find very interesting
Oral exam – 60%

Mostly the explanation of what you did in your homework
assignments – what was correct, what went wrong
A bit of discussion on the topic of ray tracing
Individual contribution in any of below – (+10%, may go over 100)

Demonstration or image creation to be used on the course,
Fix, make something better on the slides, course materials,
Make smallpaint or LuxRender better (any patch, bugfix goes)
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Reading material
http://pbrt.org/ 8
What you shouldn’t expect of this course
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Rigorous derivations of every imaginable equation

you encounter,
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you encounter,
Endless stream of formulae without explanation,
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you encounter,
Tutorial on how to write the most complicated

rendering engine ever created,
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you encounter,
Tutorial on how to write the most complicated

rendering engine ever created,
You don’t have to memorize any of the formulae.
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What you should expect of this course
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How light can be simulated in a simple and

elegant way,
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elegant way,
Why nature looks like as it does in real life,
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elegant way,
How most state of the art algorithms on ray

tracing and global illumination work,
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elegant way,
How most state of the art algorithms on ray

tracing and global illumination work,
How to read, understand and visualize seemingly

complicated mathematical formulae easily.
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And most importantly:
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And most importantly:
You will see the world differently.
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Quick radiometry recap
What to measure in a simulation?

Radiant flux (or power): total amount of energy passing
through a surface (measured per second).
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Why not radiant flux?
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Why not radiant flux?
Answer: when we measure a large flux somewhere, we don’t

know if:
lots of energy passes through small surface OR
a small amount of energy passes through a huge surface.
They result in the same radiant flux. It’s ambiguous.

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Solution: compute the flux by unit area (irradiance).
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Why not irradiance?
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Why not irradiance?
Answer: we now know what surface area to expect, but we

haven’t fixed the angle in which the light arrives to the surface,
so:
a large amount of energy in a large angle OR
a small amount of energy in a small angle.
They result in the same irradiance.

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It’s still ambiguous.

Solution: compute the flux by unit area and unit angle.
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(angle in more dimensions is called solid angle, for which the unit is not degrees but
steradians)
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Why not radiance?
steradians)
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Why not radiance?

Just kidding, it’s fine.
steradians)
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The most fundamental question
How much light exits a surface point in a given

direction?
Solution: the Maxwell equations!
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How much light exits a surface point in a given

direction?
Solution: the Maxwell equations!
In practice, we don’t do that. We mainly work with the ray

representation of light, and we only consider it as an
electromagnetic wave where it is inevitable.
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How much light leaves a surface point in a given

direction?
Solution: the rendering equation!
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The scalar product
Definition:
We’ll usually work with vectors of unit length,

therefore:
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Terminology
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Terminology
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Terminology
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Terminology
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Terminology
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Terminology
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Terminology
V should start from the same point as the other vectors to make
computations possible, so in the regular notation, we just flip it.
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Terminology
Like this.
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Terminology
Like this.
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Light attenuation
The sun shines onto a point of a surface precisely

from above. What portion of the output of one ray
will hit the surface?
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Light attenuation

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Light attenuation

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Light attenuation

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Light attenuation
The sun shines onto a point of a surface precisely from

above. What portion of the output of one ray will hit
the surface?
The full power. 
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Light attenuation
The sun shines onto a point of a surface in a 45

degree angle. What portion of the output of one
ray will hit the surface?
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Light attenuation

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Light attenuation

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Light attenuation

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Light attenuation
The sun shines onto a point of a surface in a 45 degree

angle. What portion of the output of one ray will hit
the surface?
~70% of its power.
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Light attenuation
The sun shines onto a point of a surface in near 90

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Light attenuation

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Light attenuation

degree angle. What portion of the output of one ray
None.
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Light attenuation

degree angle. What portion of the output of one ray
None.
We can neatly model light attenuation with the use of the scalar product.
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Materials
What makes the difference between materials?

How to model it?
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Materials
What makes the difference between materials?

How to model it?
Answer:
Different materials reflect incoming light to
different directions and absorb different amounts
of it.
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Materials
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Materials
Let's make a probability density function that takes

•an incoming light direction
•a point on the surface
as parameters, and outputs the probability of a

given outward direction.
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Materials


Something like this:
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Materials


Something like this:
Formally:
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BRDF
Let’s call this function the Bidirectional reflectance

distribution function (BRDF)
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BRDF?
What about materials that don’t reflect all

incoming light, but which also transmit some of it?
For instance: glass, water, gemstones, etc.
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Materials
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Materials
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BTDF
For these type of transfers, we have the

Bidirectional transmittance distribution function.
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BSDF, BxDF
To generalize the BRDF and BTDF, literature refers

to these as BSDF (S as scattering function), or BxDF.
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BSDF, BxDF
To generalize the BRDF and BTDF, literature refers

to these as BSDF (S as scattering function), or BxDF.
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BRDF properties
1. Helmholtz-reciprocity
– The direction of the ray of light can be reversed,
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BRDF properties
– Formally:
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BRDF properties
– Formally:
2. Positivity
– It is an impossibility for an exit direction to have negative
probability. This is to make mathematicians happy.
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BRDF properties
– Formally:
2. Positivity
– It is an impossibility for an exit direction to have negative
probability. This is to make mathematicians happy.
– Formally:
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BRDF properties
3. Energy conservation
– This is the most important property:
an object may reflect or absorb incoming light, but no

more can come out than the incoming amount.
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BRDF properties
an object may reflect or absorb incoming light, but no

more can come out than the incoming amount.
– Formally:
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BRDF properties
an object may reflect or absorb incoming light, but no more

can come out than the incoming amount.
– Formally:
This means that we add up the incoming energy from all

possible incoming directions, taking light attenuation into
account.
If it equals 1, all light is reflected, if it is less than 1, some of

the light is absorbed. More than 1 is impossible.
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The Rendering equation
An object can emit light itself. It also receives light

from different directions, which it will either reflect or
absorb. Therefore,
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absorb. Therefore,
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absorb. Therefore,
Formally:
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absorb. Therefore,
Formally:
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Difficulties:
-The exitant radiance of a point x depends on the
incoming radiance of every other point, which also
depend on x,
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Difficulties:
depend on x,
-It is absolutely hopeless to compute this integral in closed

form,
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Difficulties:
depend on x,

form,
-The integral is also infinite-dimensional,
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Difficulties:
depend on x,

form,
-It is often singular.
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Difficulties:
depend on x,

form,
-It is often singular.
As of now, we have insufficient knowledge to even give an

approximate solution to this.
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Surface integral formulation:
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Surface integral formulation:
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BRDF types
Illumination model for ambient BRDF (simplified):
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BRDF types
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BRDF types
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BRDF types
(In this unit we’ll discuss why this is needed)

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BRDF types
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BRDF types
Illumination model for diffuse BRDF (simplified):
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BRDF types
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BRDF types
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BRDF types
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BRDF types
Note: the diffuse, and other coefficients may take

different values for different wavelengths. An object
may absorb most of the green light, but may reflect all
incoming red light in the meantime.
The proper term would be .
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BRDF types
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BRDF types
Illumination model for specular BRDF (simplified):
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BRDF types
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BRDF types
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BRDF types
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BRDF types
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BRDF types
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BRDF types
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BRDF types (diffuse)
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Where is the light source?
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Would this region look the same if I moved my head in
reality?
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reality?
Diffuse BRDF:
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reality?
Diffuse BRDF:
Don’t just look what is in the equation, but what isn’t there.
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reality?
Diffuse BRDF:
Don’t just look what is in the equation, but what isn’t there.
And that’s the view direction (V).
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reality?
Diffuse BRDF:
The diffuse interreflection depends only on L and N,

therefore it looks the same from
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every angle.
reality?
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reality?
Specular BRDF:
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reality?
Specular BRDF:
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reality?
Specular BRDF:
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reality?
Specular BRDF:
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reality?
Specular BRDF:
Small angle between V and R
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reality?
Specular BRDF:
Small angle between V and R –

Large (close to 1) scalar product
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reality?
Specular BRDF:

Large (close to 1) scalar product.
Bright!
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reality?
It would be different!
Specular BRDF:

Bright!
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reality?
It would be different!
Specular BRDF:

Bright!
Intuition: „I am standing in the way of the light”
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Isn’t this beautifully simple?
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The illumination equation
This is the simplification of the rendering equation:
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Only accounts for the direct illumination of the

light sources,
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• Only accounts for the direct illumination of the

light sources,
• The indirect illumination is neglected, the
ambient term helps to reinject some of the lost
energy into the system,
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• Only accounts for the direct illumination of the

light sources,
• The indirect illumination is neglected, the
ambient term helps to reinject some of the lost
energy into the system,
• This is indeed a very crude approximation of
physical reality.
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Note: this could be summed for all light sources, we

kept this notation for simplicity.
What’s missing?
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Note: this could be summed for all light sources, we

kept this notation for simplicity.
What’s missing?
Let’s discuss the ray tracing algorithm and we’ll see.
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The algorithm
1. Construction of the camera/eye rays

2. Intersection with the scene objects
3. Shading
4. Reflection/refraction directions
5. ?
The algorithm
1. Construction of the camera/eye rays

2. Intersection with the scene objects
3. Shading
4. Reflection/refraction directions
5. Recursion
A word on recursion
The ray doesn’t stop at the first intersection, we have to

trace it further as it will either get reflected or refracted.
No demonstration image about this for now as you will see it

yourself in the first assignment.
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Reflection
Refraction
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The Fresnel equation (simplified)
Schlick’s approximation:
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can be given by:
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Air/vacuum-medium interactions are therefore given by:
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Air/vacuum-medium interactions are therefore given by:
Where is the index of refraction of the new medium.
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It gives the probability of reflection. If the ray is not

reflected, it will be refracted according to the law of energy
conservation. Therefore:
(T as transmission)
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Let’s play with it!
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We can think of this function as an interpolation OR

transition between these two states.
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Air-glass interaction
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What do we expect from the plot? Let’s recheck the

experiment.
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What do we expect?
- very high probability of refraction when the light ray comes

from the direction of the normal (theta is zero). High
probability of refraction means that the reflection
probability is low, the function value should be low at zero.
10% reflection, 90% refraction
Watch this experiment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfawFJCRDSE

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What do we expect?
- at around 60 degrees, refraction rays seem to be brighter,

so the function value should be low there. 60 degrees in
radians is about 1.
20% reflection, 80% refraction
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What do we expect?
- always reflect the rays when they come from almost

parallel to the surface (we call this grazing angle)
Let’s check if the equation matches reality!
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Open http://www.wolframalpha.com/ and check:

plot (0.5/2.5)^2 + ((1-(0.5/2.5)^2)(1-cosx)^5), y=0..1, x=0..pi/2
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plot (0.5/2.5)^2 + ((1-(0.5/2.5)^2)(1-cosx)^5), y=0..1, x=0..pi/2
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plot (0.5/2.5)^2 + ((1-(0.5/2.5)^2)(1-cosx)^5), y=0..1, x=0..pi/2
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plot (0.5/2.5)^2 + ((1-(0.5/2.5)^2)(1-cosx)^5), y=0..1, x=0..pi/2
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plot (0.5/2.5)^2 + ((1-(0.5/2.5)^2)(1-cosx)^5), y=0..1, x=0..pi/2
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plot (0.5/2.5)^2 + ((1-(0.5/2.5)^2)(1-cosx)^5), y=0..1, x=0..pi/2
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Let’s do another experiment – vacuum-vacuum interaction:
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What do we expect from the plot?
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Let’s do another experiment – vacuum-vacuum interaction.
Expectations:
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Expectations:
- Vacuum means empty space. No particles, nothing is inside.
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Expectations:

- Only refraction should happen as there is no medium in
which the ray of light could be reflected – we expect a ray of
light in vacuum to travel indefinitely.
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Expectations:

- Only refraction should happen as there is no medium in
which the ray of light could be reflected – we expect a ray of
light in vacuum to travel indefinitely.
Only refraction means no reflection. The function should be

constant 0.
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plot 0 + ((1-0)(1-cos(x))^5), y=0..1, x=0..pi/2
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plot 0 + ((1-0)(1-cos(x))^5), y=0..1, x=0..pi/2
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plot 0 + ((1-0)(1-cos(x))^5), y=0..1, x=0..pi/2
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plot 0 + ((1-0)(1-cos(x))^5), y=0..1, x=0..pi/2
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The Schlick-approximation is used to efficiently
calculate vacuum-medium type of interactions.
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The original Fresnel equation:
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The original Fresnel equation:
What does it say about the vacuum-vacuum interaction?
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The Fresnel equation
This better be zero if and .
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Identity:
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Identity:
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Identity:
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Identity:
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Snell’s law
In what angle are refracted rays continuing their path?
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Snell’s law
First: light slows down when entering a denser medium. The

index of refraction tells us exactly how much.
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Snell’s law

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Snell’s law

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Snell’s law

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Snell’s law

Therefore the speed of light in glass is:
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Snell’s law

Therefore the speed of light in glass is:
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Snell’s law
With blue you see light as an electromagnetic wave.

With red you see the Poynting-vector as a ray-representation of light.
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So why does the light refract inwards?
Snell’s law
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Snell’s law
Khan academy time!
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Snell’s law
Think of the light ray as a

vehicle. When this vehicle is
traveling on a road, which
suddenly it enters the mud. The
wheel that enters the mud first
will slow down, but the wheels
on the other side will still go
faster, making the vehicle turn.
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Snell’s law
Snell’s law:
This is the original notation, where
the different numbers mean
different media.
Let’s do the air-glass example seen on the previous image.
Expectations?
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Snell’s law
Snell’s law:
different media.
Expectations:
- the light is refracted inwards, therefore must hold.
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Snell’s law
Snell’s law:
different media.
Expectations:
Let’s see!
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Snell’s law
Let’s pick refraction indices instead of velocities for convenience.
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Snell’s law
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Snell’s law
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Snell’s law
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Snell’s law
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Snell’s law
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Snell’s law
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Snell’s law
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Snell’s law
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Snell’s law
Expectations:
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Snell’s law
Expectations:
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Snell’s law
Expectations:
Physics works!
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Where will the yellow ray be refracted?
Snell’s law
To the241right!
Total internal reflection
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Total internal
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reflection.
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Expectation: less than 50 degrees.

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The representation of a ray
It starts from a point, and it continues its way to a direction.
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The direction vector should always be unit length:
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The notation is somewhat alien to someone who is used to

implicit equations.
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implicit equations.
Implicit equations look like this:
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implicit equations.
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implicit equations.
Parametric equations look like this:
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implicit equations.
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Example: 2D circle with center (a,b) and radius r:
Example: the equation of a ray
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For now it will remain a secret why it is useful.
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For now it will remain a secret why it is useful.

Let’s see how to compute where a ray hits a sphere.
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Ray-sphere intersection
Let’s see how to compute where a ray hits a sphere .
Expectation:
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Let’s see how to compute where a ray hits a sphere.
Expectation:
2 hitpoints
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Expectation:
2 hitpoints
1 hitpoint
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Expectation:
2 hitpoints
1 hitpoint
no hits
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Expectation:
2 hitpoints
So the solution for this
intersection scenario should
be able to produce 2
1 hitpoint solutions, 1 solution, or no
solutions at all.
no hits
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Sphere equation:
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Sphere equation:
Ray equation:
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Sphere equation:
Ray equation:
Let’s substitute into the place of :
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Sphere equation:
Ray equation:
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Sphere equation:
Ray equation:
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This sounds a lot like a quadratic equation:
Coefficients could be the following:
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Two solutions:
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Two solutions:
Two solutions if OK
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Two solutions:
Two solutions if OK
One solution if OK
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Two solutions:
Two solutions if OK
One solution if OK
No (real) solution if OK
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However, if we have 2 solutions, t can also be a negative value.
What does that mean?
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Here t means the distance that the ray has traveled (you can
think of it as „time” traveled in the direction d), therefore the
ray is inside a sphere and one of the intersection points is
behind the origin of the ray.
If we find a solution like that, we discard it.

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Surface normals
For an implicit equation , the surface normal is given as
the gradient of the function: .
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Surface normals
Definition:
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Surface normals
Example:
Elliptic paraboloid
Definition:
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Surface normals
Example:
Elliptic paraboloid
Definition:
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Surface normals
Example:
Elliptic paraboloid
and are curvatures
Definition:
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Surface normals
Example:
Elliptic paraboloid
and are curvatures
Definition:
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Intersection routine
Intersect the ray with all objects in the scene. So what is the
first object that the ray hits?
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Obviously the closest intersection.
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Determining it will be simple because of the use of the

parametric equations for the rays as they have one variable,
and that is distance (t).
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Determining it will be simple because of the use of the

parametric equations for the rays as they have one variable,
and that is distance (t).
From the list of possible intersections, which one do we

choose?
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Imagine a list of t values.
Can we take negative t-s?
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No, because these objects lay behind the ray.
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Can we take ?
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Can we take ?
No, it’s self-intersection: the object the ray lies on.
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Can we take ?
No, it’s self-intersection: the object the ray lies on.
Therefore take the smallest non-negative, non-zero t that is

available, and it would be the first intersection point.
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A bit of beauty
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A bit of beauty
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Shadow computation
What is the definition of shadows?
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Shadow computation
What is the definition of shadows?
Regions that are not visible from light sources.

(at least for ray tracing)
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Shadow computation
Umbra
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Shadow computation
Obstructed/occluded connection
Unobstructed/unoccluded connection
Umbra
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Shadow computation
Umbra
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Shadow computation
Umbra
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Shadow computation
Umbra
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Shadow computation
Umbra
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Shadow computation
Umbra
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Shadow computation
Umbra
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Shadow computation
Umbra
For a point light source, the visibility signal will always be

binary: a point is either visible, or it’s not.
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Shadow computation
Umbra
For a point light source, the visibility signal will always be

binary: a point is either visible, or it’s not.
In these points we set the intensity to zero.
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Shadow computation
Umbra
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Shadow computation
Penumbra Umbra Penumbra
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Shadow computation
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Shadow computation
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Shadow computation
For an area light source, the visibility signal is continuous: there

may be points which are visible from a part of the light source,
but are not from others.
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Shadow computation
For an area light source, the visibility signal is continuous: there

may be points which are visible from a part of the light source,
but are not from others.
How do we determine the brightness of a point in the
penumbra?
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Shadow computation
The brightness of a point would be:
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Shadow computation
We can estimate this by shooting shadow rays from the point,

to different regions of the light source and computing:
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Shadow computation

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Shadow computation

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Shadow computation

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Shadow computation

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Shadow computation

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Shadow computation

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Shadow computation

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Shadow computation

Bonus question: is this image correct? Why?
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Shadow computation

Bonus question: is this image correct? Why?

It is not – the black umbra should continuously
change into white(r) as we move outwards.
No jump is allowed, nature is continuous.
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Shadow computation
Shadow computation
Shadow computation
Point light source!

Shadow computation
Shadow computation
Area light source!

(on the right)
Shadow computation
Have you seen completely black shadows anywhere?

The light would still find its way to the shadowed area, the
difference is that it would reach it indirectly.
A recursive ray tracer only takes the direct effect of the light
sources into account (we call this direct illumination).
Shadow computation
Have you seen completely black shadows anywhere?

The light would still find its way to the shadowed area, the
difference is that it would reach it indirectly.
A recursive ray tracer only takes the direct effect of the light
sources into account (we call this direct illumination).
This is why we use the ambient term in ray tracers – with a

simple color addition, we get an approximation to the indirect
illumination term.
A bit of beauty
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Camera models
Pinhole camera
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Camera models
Perspective camera
The starting point of the rays are fixed in the eye of the
viewer, and they are connected to a plane.
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Camera models
Perspective camera
Parameters:
Plane width,
Plane height,
Field of view,
Aspect ratio
The starting point of the rays are fixed in the eye of the
viewer, and they are connected to a plane.
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Camera models
Perspective camera
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Camera models
Perspective camera construction
We would like to name a pixel position (x,y) pair, and the

calculations should return the corresponding lens (plane)
position.
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Camera models

position.
are given and the desired pixel positions are .
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Camera models

position.
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Camera models

position.
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Camera models

position.
Forget the fov for a bit and let’s play with it:
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Camera models

position.
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Camera models

position.
This is the bottom left.
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Camera models

position.
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Camera models

position.
This is the upper right.
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Camera models
This is upper bottom right.
Now consider the fov as a scaling factor:
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Camera models
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Camera models
Therefore the bigger we set the fov, the more perspective

distortion we should expect.
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Camera models
It is implementable right away:
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Camera models
It is implementable right away:
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Camera models
Orthographic camera
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Camera models
Orthographic camera
The camera rays are parallel, and they don’t meet at the eye.
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Camera models
Orthographic
Perspective camera 367
Perspective
Camera models
Perspective camera 368

(Disregard the background – HDR maps are problematic
Camera models
in the presence of orthographic cameras.)
Orthographic camera (no perspective

369 distortion)
Recursion
The ray tracing algorithm:
1. Construction of the camera/eye rays OK

2. Intersection with the scene objects OK
3. Shading OK
4. Reflection/refraction directions OK
5. Recursion ?
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Recursion
So far we have only computed the first intersection of the

light ray. After it happened, and we are done with the
shading and reflection/refraction steps, we need to trace the
ray of light further.
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Recursion
So far we have only computed the first intersection of the

light ray. After it happened, and we are done with the
shading and reflection/refraction steps, we need to trace the
ray of light further.
With the new origin and direction settings, we restart the

whole process until a given maximum ray depth value is
reached.
372
Recursion
The ray tracing algorithm:
1. Construction of the camera/eye rays OK

2. Intersection with the scene objects OK
3. Shading OK
4. Reflection/refraction directions OK
5. Recursion OK
373
The Illumination Equation with recursion
The Illumination Equation with recursion:
374
375
376
377
378
379
Heckbert’s notation for light paths
L – light source
D – diffuse light paths
S – specular light paths
E – eye/camera
380
L – light source
E – eye/camera
[D]* - any amount of diffuse bounces (or even zero)

[S|D] – specular or diffuse bounce (but only one of them)
381
L – light source
E – eye/camera
[D]* - any amount of diffuse bounces (or even zero)

[S|D] – specular or diffuse bounce (but only one of them)
This notation makes it convenient to discuss what light paths

different rendering algorithms are capable of rendering.
382
Light paths that different rendering algorithms take into

consideration:
Ray casting: L[D]E

Radiosity: L[D*]E
Recursive ray tracing: L[D]S*E
Global illumination: L[D|S]*E
383
Light paths that different rendering algorithms take into

consideration:
Ray casting: L[D]E

Radiosity: L[D*]E
Recursive ray tracing: L[D]S*E
Global illumination: L[D|S]*E
In recursive ray tracing, at a diffuse bounce, we always

use the perfect reflection direction (as if the ray were
bouncing off of a mirror).
384
Assignment #1
Practical part
Let’s play a bit with Paul Heckbert’s „business card” ray tracer.
To compile, you are free to use every compiler/IDE you wish.
The simplest possible compiler for Windows is set up in a zip

file (next slide).
386
Assignment #1
Practical part
- Get http://cg.tuwien.ac.at/~zsolnai/rendering/rendering_assignment1_ray_tracing.zip
- Follow the instructions in the readme.txt file to compile,
- Make images with different DEPTH values in ray.h (1-5),
- What did you experience visually? Why?
- Crank up the DEPTH value (20+). How does it affect the
runtime?
- Analyze the runtime of the algorithm depending on DEPTH.
Does it deteriorate? Why or why not?
Assignment #1
Practical part
- Get http://cg.tuwien.ac.at/~zsolnai/rendering/rendering_assignment1_ray_tracing.zip
- Follow the instructions in the readme.txt file to compile,
- Make images with different DEPTH values in ray.h (1-5),
- What did you experience visually? Why?
- Crank up the DEPTH value (20+). How does it affect the
runtime?
- Analyze the runtime of the algorithm depending on DEPTH.
Does it deteriorate? Why or why not?
If you have trouble with the links in the presentation, either

start a fullscreen slideshow and click the link there, or right
click and choose the option to open it from there.
Assignment #1
Practical part
- For pros: What is the complexity of the algorithm with

reflection and refraction? Complexity as in, how many rays
have to be traced with respect to DEPTH and the resolution?
Use mathematical reasoning and the big O notation (Ordo
notation in some languages).
- For pros: What could we do if we wanted the algorithm to
run with a very high DEPTH value?
- For pros: What would be the new complexity of the
algorithm?
- Play a bit with the AOV value (= fov on our slides). What did
you experience? Why?
- There is also a different business card ray tracer under the
name of card.cpp. Just play with it freely as you wish.
Assignment #1
Practical part
Format for the runtime tables:

Depth time[s]
1 2.71
2 3.14
3 5.97
...
390
Assignment #1
Practical part
Format for the runtime tables:

Depth time[s]
1 2.71
2 3.14
3 5.97
...
Make a plot of your measurements. For this you can use any
software you wish (Excel, gnuplot, anything).
Filenames:
- heckbert_runtimes1.txt,
- heckbert_runtimes1.png for the plot,
391
Assignment #1
Draw the following light paths onto the picture:
- LE
- LDE,
- LSE,
- LDDE,
- LDSE,
- LSDE,
Save as light_paths.(png|jpg)
392
Assignment #1
Practical part
Your observations, should go into the observations.txt file.
Images with the different DEPTH and AOV options should go

into:
- heckbert_depth($value).png
- heckbert_aov($value).png
Example: heckbert_depth3.png
Yes, please convert them from uncompressed ppm to png.
393
Assignment #1
Zip them all up and send them to:

zsolnai@cg.tuwien.ac.at
Subject: [rendering_$year_($assignment_number)]_
($your_matrikelnumber),($your_name)
Filename: same with .zip extension
Example:
[Rendering_SS2048_1]_0123456,Thomas Auzinger
394

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Rendering

Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms (E186)

Oral exam – 60%

Oral exam – 60%

Individual contribution in any of below – (+10%, may go over 100)

Rigorous derivations of every imaginable equation

Rigorous derivations of every imaginable equation

Endless stream of formulae without explanation,

Rigorous derivations of every imaginable equation

Endless stream of formulae without explanation,

Tutorial on how to write the most complicated

Rigorous derivations of every imaginable equation

Endless stream of formulae without explanation,

Tutorial on how to write the most complicated

You don’t have to memorize any of the formulae.

How light can be simulated in a simple and

How light can be simulated in a simple and

Why nature looks like as it does in real life,

How light can be simulated in a simple and

Why nature looks like as it does in real life,

How most state of the art algorithms on ray

How light can be simulated in a simple and

Why nature looks like as it does in real life,

How most state of the art algorithms on ray

How to read, understand and visualize seemingly

And most importantly:

And most importantly:

You will see the world differently.

What to measure in a simulation?

What to measure in a simulation?

What to measure in a simulation?

Why not radiant flux?

What to measure in a simulation?

Why not radiant flux?

Answer: when we measure a large flux somewhere, we don’t

They result in the same radiant flux. It’s ambiguous.

What to measure in a simulation?

What to measure in a simulation?

What to measure in a simulation?

Why not irradiance?

What to measure in a simulation?

Why not irradiance?

Answer: we now know what surface area to expect, but we

They result in the same irradiance.

What to measure in a simulation?

What to measure in a simulation?

What to measure in a simulation?

What to measure in a simulation?

What to measure in a simulation?

Why not radiance?

What to measure in a simulation?

Why not radiance?

How much light exits a surface point in a given

Solution: the Maxwell equations!

How much light exits a surface point in a given

Solution: the Maxwell equations!

In practice, we don’t do that. We mainly work with the ray

How much light leaves a surface point in a given

Solution: the rendering equation!

We’ll usually work with vectors of unit length,

The sun shines onto a point of a surface precisely

The sun shines onto a point of a surface precisely

The sun shines onto a point of a surface precisely

The sun shines onto a point of a surface precisely