An efficient form-factor evaluation algorithm for environments with curved surfaces

Abstract

A new approach for evaluating form-factors between B-spline surface patches is presented. While previous radiosity approaches subdivide the environment based on the planar approximations of curved surfaces and invoke conventional algorithms for form-factor evaluation, our new approach capitalizes on the solid angle integration analog of the form-factor equation to arrive at an efficient progressive radiosity algorithm. A dynamic sampling strategy of the source patch with respect to the receiving vertices in the environment is also incorporated. Implementation results show that our algorithm has potential.