This thesis deals with photorealistic rendering and real-time global illumination. Thesis contains overview of algorithms used for real-time global illumination of which the Dynamic Diffuse Global Illumination with Ray-Traced Irradiance Fields was implemented. This algorithm uses hardware accelerated ray tracing to compute global illumination in a scene. Hardware ray tracing requires use of new generation of graphics API from which Vulkan was choosen for this thesis.

This master thesis focuses on photon mapping rendering technique. A simple photon mapping was implemented as a baseline and then progressive photon mapping was prepared for CPU and GPU. After implementing progressive photon mapping on GPU, further acceleration techniques were proposed. Finally, in the thesis, genetic clustering algorithm for suitable clusters on GPU was proposed.

This dissertation explores algorithms for rendering optimization realizable within a modern, complex rendering engine. The first part contains optimized rendering algorithms for ray tracing. Ray tracing algorithms typically provide properties of simplicity and robustness that are highly desirable in computer graphics. We offer several novel contributions to the problem of interactive ray tracing of complex lighting environments. We focus on the problem of maintaining interactivity as both geometric and lighting complexity grows without effecting the simplicity or robustness of ray tracing. First, we present a new algorithm called occlusion caching for accelerating the calculation of direct lighting from many light sources. We cache light visibility information sparsely across a scene. When rendering direct lighting for all pixels in a frame, we combine cached lighting information to determine whether or not shadow rays are needed. Since light visibility and scene location are highly correlated, our approach precludes the need for most shadow rays. Second, we present improvements to the irradiance caching algorithm. Here we demonstrate a new elliptical cache point spacing heuristic that reduces the number of cache points required by taking into account the direction of irradiance gradients. We also accelerate irradiance caching by efficiently and intuitively coupling it with occlusion caching. In the second part of this dissertation, we present optimizations to rendering algorithms for participating media. Specifically, we explore the implementation and use of photon beams as an efficient, intuitive artistic primitive. We detail our implementation of the photon iii beams algorithm into PhotoRealistic RenderMan (PRMan). We show how our implementation maintains the benefits of the industry standard Reyes rendering pipeline, with proper motion blur and depth of field. We detail an automatic photon beam generation algorithm, utilizing PRMan shadow maps. We accelerate the rendering of camera-facing photon beams by utilizing Gaussian quadrature for path integrals in place of ray marching. Our optimized implementation allows for incredible versatility and intuitiveness in artistic control of volumetric lighting effects. Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness of photon beams as artistic primitives by detailing their use in a feature-length animated film.

The growing demand for realistic renderings in both film and games has led to a number of proposed solutions to the Global Illumination problem. In order to imitate natural lighting, it is necessary to gather indirect illumination of the surrounding environment for lighting computations. This is a computationally expensive problem, requiring the sampling or rasterization of the hemisphere surrounding each ray intersection, to which there is no standardized solution. In this thesis we propose a new method of approximation using environment maps for caching radiance. The proposed method leverages a voxelized scene representation for storing direct illumination and a cache of environment maps for integrating indirect illumination. By using a voxelized scene to gather indirect lighting contributions and caching these contributions spatially, we are able to achieve fast and convincing renders of large complex scenes. The result of our implementation produces images comparable to those of existing Monte Carlo integration methods with render speeds a magnitude or more faster.

The object of this work is to create software implementing two algorithms for global ilumination computing. Iradiance and radiance caching should be implemented in CUDA framework on graphics card (GPU). Parallel implementation on GPU should dramatically improve algoritm speed compared to CPU implementation. The software will be written using already done framework for global illumunation computation. That allow to focus to algorithm implementation only. This work should speed up testing of new or existing methods for global illumination computing, because saving and reusing of intermediate results can be used for other algorithms too. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This diploma thesis deals with global illumination and generally with the process of illumination of prepared scenes. A program for illumination management was written for this purpose. It can manage both direct and indirect illumination in interactive time. Simple and comfortable user interface allows for addition, deletion and change in light settings. Different types of both point and area lights are supported. In the course of all work, the program displays current illumination of the scene. With the help of this application, a series of different experiments will be carried out. We will explore the way users work during illumination, the way they perceive different properties of global illumination, various options of its control and its comparison with common direct illumination.

The objective of this work is to create software implementing two algorithms for global ilumination computation. Iradiance and radiance caching should be implemented in CUDA framework on a graphics card (GPU). Parallel implementation on the GPU should improve algoritm speed compared to CPU implementation. The software will be written using an already done framework for global illumunation computation. That allows to focus on algorithm implementation only. This work should speed up testing of new or existing methods for global illumination computing, because saving and reusing of intermediate results can be used for other algorithms too. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

En synthèse d'images, le principal calcul à effectuer pour générer une image a été formalisé dans une équation appelée équation du rendu [Kajiya1986]. Cette équation est la intègre la conservation de l'énergie dans le transport de la lumière. Elle stipule que l'énergie lumineuse renvoyée, par les objets d'une scène, dans une direction donnée est égale à la somme de l'énergie émise et réfléchie par ceux-ci. De plus, l'énergie réfléchie par un élément de surface est définie comme la convolution de l'éclairement incident avec une fonction de réflectance. Cette dernière modélise le matériau (au sens physique) de l'objet et joue le rôle d'un filtre directionnel et énergétique dans l'équation du rendu, simulant ainsi la manière dont la surface se comporte vis-à-vis d'une réflexion. Dans ce mémoire de thèse, nous introduisons de nouvelles représentations pour la fonction de réflectance ainsi que pour la représentation de l'éclairement incident. Dans la première partie de ce mémoire, nous proposons deux nouveaux modèles pour représenter la fonction de réflectance. Le premier modèle s'inscrit dans une démarche artistique et est destiné à faciliter la création et l'édition des reflets spéculaires. Son principe est de laisser l'utilisateur peindre et esquisser les caractéristiques (forme, couleur, gradient et texture) du reflet spéculaire dans un plan de dessin paramétrisé en fonction de la direction de la réflexion miroir de la lumière. Le but du second modèle est de représenter de manière compacte et efficace les mesures des matériaux isotropes. Pour ce faire, nous introduisons une nouvelle représentation à base de polynômes rationnels. Les coefficients de ces derniers sont obtenus à l'aide d'un processus d'approximation qui garantit une solution optimale au sens de la convergence. Dans la seconde partie de ce mémoire, nous introduisons une nouvelle représentation volumétrique pour l'éclairement indirect représenté directionnellement à l'aide de vecteurs d'irradiance. Nous montrons que notre représentation est compacte et robuste aux variations géométriques et qu'elle peut être utilisée comme système de cache pour du rendu temps réel ou non, ainsi que dans le cadre de la transmission progressive des données (\textit{streaming}). Enfin, nous proposons deux types de modifications de l'éclairement incident afin de mettre en valeur les détails et les formes d'une surface. Le première modification consiste à perturber les directions de l'éclairement incident tandis que la seconde consiste à en modifier l'intensité. / In image synthesis, the main computation involved to generate an image is characterized by an equation named rendering equation [Kajiya1986]. This equation represents the law of energy conservation. It stipulates that the light emanating from the scene objects is the sum of the emitted energy and the reflected energy. Moreover, the reflected energy at a surface point is defined as the convolution of the incoming lighting with a reflectance function. The reflectance function models the object material and represents, in the rendering equation, a directional and energetic filter that describes the surface behavior regarding the reflection. In this thesis, we introduce new representations for the reflectance function and the incoming lighting. In the first part of this thesis, we propose two new models for the reflectance function. The first model is targeted for artists to help them create and edit highlights. Our main idea is to let the user paint and sketch highlight characteristics (shape, color, gradient and texture) in a plane parametrized by the incident lighting direction. The second model is designed to represent efficiently isotropic material data. To achieve this result, we introduce a new representation of the reflectance function that uses rational polynomials. Their coefficients are computed using a fitting process that guarantees an optimal solution regarding convergence. In the second part of this thesis, we introduce a new volumetric structure for indirect illumination that is directionally represented with irradiance vector. We show that our representation is compact and robust to geometric variations, that it can be used as caching system for interactive and offline rendering and that it can also be transmitted with streaming techniques. Finally, we introduce two modifications of the incoming lighting to improve the shape depiction of a surface. The first modification consists in warping the incoming light directions whereas the second one consists in scaling the intensity of each light source.

Cette thèse introduit un cadre théorique pour l'étude de différents schémas d'échantillonnage dans un domaine sphérique, et de leurs effets sur le calcul d'intégrales pour l'illumination globale. Le calcul de l'illumination (du transport lumineux) est un composant majeur de la synthèse d'images réalistes, qui se traduit par l'évaluation d'intégrales multidimensionnelles. Les schémas d'intégration numériques de type Monte-Carlo sont utilisés intensivement pour le calcul de telles intégrales. L'un des aspects majeurs de tout schéma d'intégration numérique est l'échantillonnage. En effet, la façon dont les échantillons sont distribués dans le domaine d'intégration peut fortement affecter le résultat final. Par exemple, pour la synthèse d'images, les effets liés aux différents schémas d'échantillonnage apparaissent sous la forme d'artéfacts structurés ou, au contrire, de bruit non structuré. Dans de nombreuses situations, des résultats complètement faux (biaisés) peuvent être obtenus à cause du schéma d'échantillonnage utilisé pour réaliser l'intégration. La distribution d'un échantillonnage peut être caractérisée à l'aide de son spectre de Fourier. Des schémas d'échantillonnage peuvent être générés à partir d'un spectre de puissance dans le domaine de Fourier. Cette technique peut être utilisée pour améliorer l'erreur d'intégration, car un tel contrôle spectral permet d'adapter le schéma d'échantillonnage au spectre de Fourier de l'intégrande. Il n'existe cependant pas de relation directe entre l'erreur dans l'intégration par méthode de Monte-Carlo et le spectre de puissance de la distribution des échantillons. Dans ces travaux, nous proposons une formulation de la variance qui établit un lien direct entre la variance d'une méthode de Monte-Carlo, les spectres de puissance du schéma d'échantillonnage ainsi que de l'intégrande. Pour obtenir notre formulation de la variance, nous utilisons la notion d'homogénéité de la distribution des échantillons qui permet d'exprimer l'erreur de l'intégration par une méthode de Monte-Carlo uniquement sous forme de variance. À partir de cette formulation de la variance, nous développons un outil d'analyse pouvant être utilisé pour déterminer le taux de convergence théorique de la variance de différents schémas d'échantillonnage proposés dans la littérature. Notre analyse fournit un éclairage sur les bonnes pratiques à mettre en œuvre dans la définition de nouveaux schémas d'échantillonnage basés sur l'intégrande / This dissertation introduces a theoretical framework to study different sampling patterns in the spherical domain and their effects in the evaluation of global illumination integrals. Evaluating illumination (light transport) is one of the most essential aspect in image synthesis to achieve realism which involves solving multi-dimensional space integrals. Monte Carlo based numerical integration schemes are heavily employed to solve these high dimensional integrals. One of the most important aspect of any numerical integration method is sampling. The way samples are distributed on an integration domain can greatly affect the final result. For example, in images, the effects of various sampling patterns appear in the form of either structural artifacts or completely unstructured noise. In many cases, we may get completely false (biased) results due to the sampling pattern used in integration. The distribution of sampling patterns can be characterized using their Fourier power spectra. It is also possible to use the Fourier power spectrum as input, to generate the corresponding sample distribution. This further allows spectral control over the sample distributions. Since this spectral control allows tailoring new sampling patterns directly from the input Fourier power spectrum, it can be used to improve error in integration. However, a direct relation between the error in Monte Carlo integration and the sampling power spectrum is missing. In this work, we propose a variance formulation, that establishes a direct link between the variance in Monte Carlo integration and the power spectra of both the sampling pattern and the integrand involved. To derive our closed-form variance formulation, we use the notion of homogeneous sample distributions that allows expression of error in Monte Carlo integration, only in the form of variance. Based on our variance formulation, we develop an analysis tool that can be used to derive theoretical variance convergence rates of various state-of-the-art sampling patterns. Our analysis gives insights to design principles that can be used to tailor new sampling patterns based on the integrand

Produzir imagens de alta qualidade por computador, no menor tempo possível, que sejam convincentes ao público alvo, utilizando-se de maneira ótima todos os recursos computacionais à disposição, é uma tarefa que envolve uma cadeia de processos específicos, sendo um grande desafio ainda nos dias de hoje. O presente trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre toda esta cadeia de processos, com foco na avaliação de métodos de Iluminação Global empregados na Síntese de Imagens fotorrealistas para as áreas de Animação e Efeitos Visuais. Com o objetivo de auxiliar o usuário na tarefa de produzir imagens fotorrealistas de alta qualidade, foram realizados experimentos envolvendo diversas cenas de teste e seis métodos de Iluminação Global do Estado da Arte: Path Tracing, Light Tracing, Bidirectional Path Tracing, Metropolis Light Transport, Progressive Photon Mapping e Vertex Connection and Merging. O sintetizador escolhido para execução do experimento foi o Mitsuba Renderer. Para avaliação da qualidade dos resultados, duas métricas perceptuais foram adotadas: o Índice de Similaridade Estrutural SSIM e o Previsor de Diferenças Visuais HDR-VDP-2. A partir da avaliação dos resultados, foi construído um Guia de Recomendações para o usuário, indicando, com base nas características de uma cena arbitrária, o método de Iluminação Global mais adequado para realizar a síntese das imagens. Por fim, foram apontados caminhos de pesquisa para trabalhos futuros, sugerindo o emprego de classificadores, métodos de redução de parâmetros e Inteligência Artificial a fim de automatizar o processo de produção de imagens fotorrealistas e de alta qualidade. / The task of generating high quality computer images in the shortest time possible, believable to the targets audience perception, using all computational resources available, is still a challenging procedure, composed by a chain of specific processes. This work presents a study of this chain, focusing on the evaluation of Global Illumination methods used on the Synthesis of Photorealistic Images, in the areas of Animation and Visual Effects. To achieve the goal of helping users to produce high-quality photorealistic images, two experiments were proposed containing several test scenes and six State-of-the-Art Global Illumination methods: Path Tracing, Light Tracing, Bidirectional Path Tracing, Metropolis Light Transport, Progressive Photon Mapping and Vertex Connection and Merging. In order to execute the tests, the open source renderer Mitsuba was used. The quality of the produced images was analyzed using two different perceptual metrics: Structural Similarity Index SSIM and Visual Difference Predictor HDR-VDP-2. By analyzing results, a Recommendation Guide was created, providing suggestions, based on an arbitrary scenes characteristics, of the most suitable Global Illumination method to be used in order to synthesize images from the given scene. In the end, future ways of research are presented, proposing the use of classifiers, parameter reduction methods and Artificial Intelligence, in order to build an automatic procedure to generate high quality photorealistic images.