Reflection space image based rendering

Abstract

High quality, physically accurate rendering at interactive rates haswidespread application, but is a daunting task. We attempt to bridgethe gap between high-quality offline and interactive rendering byusing existing environment mapping hardware in combination witha novel Image Based Rendering (IBR) algorithm. The primary contribution lies in performing IBR in reflection space. This methodcan be applied to ordinary environment maps, but for more physically accurate rendering, we apply reflection space IBR to radianceenvironment maps. A radiance environment map pre-integrates aBidirectional Reflection Distribution Function (BRDF) with a lighting environment. Using the reflection-space IBR algorithm on radiance environment maps allows interactive rendering of arbitraryobjects with a large class of complex BRDFs in arbitrary lighting environments. The ultimate simplicity of the final algorithmsuggests that it will be widely and immediately valuable given theready availability of hardware assisted environment mapping