Hierarchical Radiosity for Multiresolution Systems Based on Normal Tests

Abstract

The hierarchical radiosity algorithm provides high-quality illumination and the view-independent results obtained can be re-employed for different camera positions. On the other hand, the utilization of multiresolution models is a common solution for the real-time rendering of complex scenes. In this case, the level of detail of each object depends on the specific camera position. Unfortunately, global illumination computations may present an important performance loss in this context. In this paper we present a new solution for hierarchical radiosity for multiresolution systems. Our proposal is based on the application of an enriched hierarchical radiosity algorithm to an input scene with low-resolution objects (represented by coarse meshes) and the efficient data management of the resulting values. The representation of the information we use permits the application of the radiosity values obtained for the coarse version of an object to finer resolution versions of that object. Results of our implementation show that our algorithm produces high-quality images with an important reduction in computational costs.