Calculating Hierarchical Radiosity Form Factors using Programmable Graphics Hardware

Abstract

We present a method for the efficient calculation of multiresolution radiosity form factors using programmable graphics hardware. Mipmapped ID textures are used to allow for highly refined patches with the mipmapping mechanism working as a hardware-accelerated oracle for the dynamic linking of patch hierarchies. The actual form factor values for unoccluded patches are then computed with the analytic differential area to polygon form factor using programmable graphics hardware. The resulting method allows for the efficient calculation of radiosity solutions with refined patch hierarchies as well as form factor values that are more accurate than those computed with the traditional hemicube algorithm.