19. A Practical Guide to Ray Tracing and Photon Mapping
Monday, Tutorial, 3:45 - 5:30 pm
West Hall B
Level: Intermediate

Photon mapping is a practical way of efficiently simulating global illumination, including caustics, color bleeding, participating media, and subsurface scattering in scenes with complicated geometry and advanced material models.

This tutorial provides a detailed description of the ray-tracing and photon-mapping algorithms for simulating global illumination. It provides the practical insight necessary for using and implementing ray tracing and photon mapping. Recent advances in the photon-mapping algorithm are also summarized.

Prerequisites
Knowledge of basic linear algebra and rendering algorithms.

Intended Audience
Artists who use ray tracing and photon mapping, and students and researchers who would like to implement the algorithms and need an overview with an emphasis on practical details.

Organizer and Lecturer
Henrik Wann Jensen
University of California, San Diego

Schedule

3:45	Introduction and Welcome: Course Overview and Motivation for Attending The Ray Tracing Algorithm The Basics of the Ray Tracing Algorithm Jensen
4:05	Photon Tracing: Building the Photon Maps, Efficient Techniques for Photon Tracing Emitting Photons From the Light Sources in the Scene The Use of Projection Maps Simulating Scattering and Absorption of Photons Using Russian Roulette Storing Photons in the Photon Map Preparing the Photon Map for Rendering Jensen
4:40	Rendering Using Photon Mapping: Details on How to Integrate Photon Mapping Into a Ray Tracer, and How to Use it for Rendering of 3D Models Jensen