A Real–time Global Illumination Approach for High Resolution Reflective Shadow Maps in Open World Scenes

Daniel Bischoff, Tobias Schwandt, Wolfgang Broll

2017

Abstract

The complexity of offline and real–time rendering of global illumination effects is a vast field of research. Covering the complexity of dynamic open–world environments with changing light conditions and moving objects is challenging in real–time rendering. Especially the quality of light properties needs to be physically correct and sufficiently fast even if the light and environment conditions are changing. In this paper, we present a fast global illumination approach suitable to achieve indirect lighting using high–resolution reflective shadow maps in real time. Based on LightSkin, we present an enhancement applying bidirectional shadow maps to improve the quality of shadows and global illumination effects in open–world environments. A novel combination of accumulating virtual area lights from the reflective shadow map with an indirect light representation using LightSkin’s proxy light sources shows a significant improvement. In an urban scene typical for open–world environments, the proposed approach is up to approx. 12 times faster than the original LightSkin approach. This makes our novel approach suitable for high–quality indoor as well as outdoor global illumination.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Bischoff D., Schwandt T. and Broll W. (2017). A Real–time Global Illumination Approach for High Resolution Reflective Shadow Maps in Open World Scenes . In Proceedings of the 12th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2017) ISBN 978-989-758-224-0, pages 116-126. DOI: 10.5220/0006135601160126

in Bibtex Style

@conference{grapp17,
author={Daniel Bischoff and Tobias Schwandt and Wolfgang Broll},
title={A Real–time Global Illumination Approach for High Resolution Reflective Shadow Maps in Open World Scenes},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 12th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2017)},
year={2017},
pages={116-126},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0006135601160126},
isbn={978-989-758-224-0},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 12th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2017)
TI - A Real–time Global Illumination Approach for High Resolution Reflective Shadow Maps in Open World Scenes
SN - 978-989-758-224-0
AU - Bischoff D.
AU - Schwandt T.
AU - Broll W.
PY - 2017
SP - 116
EP - 126
DO - 10.5220/0006135601160126