Computer Graphics

University of California - Berkeley

Real-Time Rough Refraction


Abstract

We present an algorithm to render objects of transparent materials with rough surfaces in real-time, under distant illumination. Rough surfaces cause wide scattering as light enters and exits objects, which significantly complicates the rendering of such materials. We present two contributions to approximate the successive scattering events at interfaces, due to rough refraction : First, an approximation of the Bidirectional Transmittance Distribution Function (BTDF), using spherical Gaussians, suitable for real-time estimation of environment lighting using pre-convolution; second, a combination of cone tracing and macro-geometry filtering to efficiently integrate the scattered rays at the exiting interface of the object. We demonstrate the quality of our approximation by comparison against stochastic raytracing.

Citation

Charles De Rousiers, Adrien Bousseau, Kartic Subr, Nicolas Holzschuch, and Ravi Ramamoorthi. "Real-Time Rough Refraction". In Proceedings of the ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games (I3D), February 2011.