GPUGI: Global Illumination Effects on the GPU

December 13th, 2006

This tutorial explains how global illumination rendering methods can be implemented on Shader Model 3.0 GPUs. These algorithms do not follow the conventional local illumination model of DirectX/OpenGL pipelines, but require global geometric or illumination information when shading a point. In addition to the theory and state of the art of these approaches, the tutorial goes into the details of a few algorithms, including mirror reflection, refraction, caustics, diffuse/glossy indirect illumination, precomputation-aided global illumination for surface and volumetric models, obscurances and tone mapping, also giving their GPU implementation in HLSL or Cg language. (Laszlo Szirmay-Kalos, Laszlo Scecsi, Mateu Sbert: GPUGI: Global Illumination Effects on the GPU. Eurographics 2006 Tutorial.)

Leave a Comment