“Distributed ray tracing” by Cook, Porter and Carpenter

  • ©Robert L. Cook, Thomas (Tom) K. Porter, and Loren C. Carpenter

Conference:


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Title:

    Distributed ray tracing

Presenter(s)/Author(s):



Abstract:


    Ray tracing is one of the most elegant techniques in computer graphics. Many phenomena that are difficult or impossible with other techniques are simple with ray tracing, including shadows, reflections, and refracted light. Ray directions, however, have been determined precisely, and this has limited the capabilities of ray tracing. By distributing the directions of the rays according to the analytic function they sample, ray tracing can incorporate fuzzy phenomena. This provides correct and easy solutions to some previously unsolved or partially solved problems, including motion blur, depth of field, penumbras, translucency, and fuzzy reflections. Motion blur and depth of field calculations can be integrated with the visible surface calculations, avoiding the problems found in previous methods.

References:


    1. COOK, ROBERT L., TURNER WHITTED, AND DONALD P. GREENBERG, A Comprehensive Model for Image Synthesis. unpublished report
    2. COOK, ROBERT L., “A Reflection Model for Realistic Image Synthesis,” Master’s thesis, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, December 1981.
    3. COOK, ROBERT L. AND KENNETH E. TORRANCE, “A Reflection Model for Computer Graphics,” ACM Transactions on Graphics, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 7-24, January 1982.
    4. COOK, ROBERT L., “Antialiased Point Sampling,” Technical Memo #94, Lucasfilm Ltd, San Rafael, CA, October 3, 1983.
    5. HUNTER, RICHARD S., The Measurement of Appearance, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1975.
    6. KOREIN, JONATHAN AND NORMAN BADLER, “Temporal Anti-Aliasing in Computer Generated Animation,” Computer Graphics, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 377-388, July 1983.
    7. NISHITA, TOMOYUKI, ISAO OKAMURA, AND EIHACHIRO NAKAMAE, Siggraph Art Show, 1982.
    8. POTMESIL, MICHAEL AND INDRANIL CHAKRAVARTY, “Synthetic Image Generation with a Lens and Aperture Camera Model,” ACM Transactions on Graphics, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 85-108, April 1982.
    9. POTMESIL, MICHAEL AND INDRANIL CHAKRAVARTY, “Modeling Motion Blur in Computer-Generated Images,” Computer Graphics, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 389-399, July 1983.
    10. ROTH, S. D., “Ray Casting for Modeling Solids,” Computer Graphics and Image Processing, no. 18, pp. 109-144, 1982.
    11. WHITTED, TURNER, “An Improved Illumination Model for Shaded Display,” Communications of the ACM, vol. 23, pp. 343-349, 1980.


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