Performance Comparison of Techniques for Approximating Image-Based Lighting by Directional Light Sources

Abstract. Image-Based Lighting (IBL) has become a very popular approach in computer graphics. In essence IBL is based on capturing the illumination conditions in a scene in an omni-directional image, called a light probe image. Using the illumination information from such an image virtual objects can be rendered with consistent shading including global illumination effects such as color bleeding. Rendering with light probe illumination is extremely time consuming. Therefore a range of techniques exist for approximating the incident radiance described in a light probe image by a finite number of directional light sources. We describe two such techniques from the literature and perform a comparative evaluation of them in terms of how well they each approximate the final irradiance. We demonstrate that there is significant difference in the performance of the two techniques.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: SCIA
• Authors: Claus B. Madsen, Rune E. Laursen
• Keywords: Light Probe, Light Probe Illumination, Light Probe Image, SCIA 2007