Streaming light propagation
US9053582B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 11, 2012 |
| Grant date | Jun 9, 2015 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 16, 2033 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T15/506
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method is provided for streaming light propagation with particular application for feature films and other demanding content creation using scenes of high complexity requiring art directed global illumination. By attaching a data recording shader or equivalent functionality to any tracing based renderer that can provide multi-pass global illumination, the complete set of light bounce propagation records and the set of emissive samples for a particular rendering can be recorded to memory or disk. A user may edit the emissive samples to adjust the lighting environment, including modifying light source color and intensity and even moving and adding new emissive samples. To relight the scene, the edited emissive samples are processed through the propagation records using a streaming multiply-and-add operation amenable to high levels of parallelization, avoiding a costly re-rendering of the scene and providing a final quality result in interactive time.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.