A lighting model for general participating media

Efficient and visually compelling reproduction of effects due to multiple scattering in participating media remains one of the most difficult tasks in computer graphics. Although several fast techniques were recently developed, most of them work only for special types of media (for example, uniform or sufficiently dense) or require extensive precomputation. In this paper we present a lighting model for the general case of inhomogeneous medium and demonstrate its implementation on programmable graphics hardware. It is capable of producing high quality imagery at interactive frame rates with only mild assumptions about medium scattering properties and a moderate amount of simple precomputation. CR Categories: I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism—Shadowing;

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: SI3D
• Authors: Kyle Hegeman, Michael Ashikhmin, Simon Premoze
• Keywords: Computer Graphics, Medium Scattering Properties, Programmable Graphics Hardware, SI3D 2005