Wavelet encoding of BRDFs for real-time rendering

Acquired data often provides the best knowledge of a material’s bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF). Its integration into most real-time rendering systems requires both data compression and the implementation of the decompression and filtering stages on contemporary graphics processing units (GPUs). This paper improves the quality of real-time per-pixel lighting on GPUs using a wavelet decomposition of acquired BRDFs. Threedimensional texture mapping with indexing allows us to efficiently compress the BRDF data by exploiting much of the coherency between hemispherical data. We apply built-in hardware filtering and pixel shader flexibility to perform filtering in the full 4D BRDF domain. Anti-aliasing of specular highlights is performed via a progressive level-of-detail technique built upon the multiresolution of the wavelet encoding. This technique increases rendering performance on distant surfaces while maintaining accurate appearance of close ones. CR Cat...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: GRAPHICSINTERFACE
• Authors: Luc Claustres, Loïc Barthe, Mathias Paulin
• Keywords: Computer Graphics, Graphics Processing Units, GRAPHICSINTERFACE 2007, Real-time Rendering Systems