Global Illumination Compendium September 29, 2003 Philip Dutré
[email protected] Computer Graphics, Department of Computer Science Katholieke Universiteit Leuven http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~phil/GI/ This collection of formulas and equations is supposed to be useful for anyone who is active in the field of global illu- mination in computer graphics. I started this document as a helpful tool to my own research, since I was growing tired of having to look up equations and formulas in various books and papers. As a consequence, many concepts which are ‘trivial’ to me are not in this Global Illumination Compendium, unless someone specifically asked for them. There- fore, any further input and suggestions for more useful content are strongly appreciated. If possible, adequate references are given to look up some of the equations in more detail, or to look up the deriva- tions. Also, an attempt has been made to mention the paper in which a particular idea or equation has been described first. However, over time, many ideas have become ‘common knowledge’ or have been modified to such extent that they no longer resemble the original formulation. In these cases, references are not given. As a rule of thumb, I include a reference if it really points to useful extra knowledge about the concept being described. In a document like this, there is always a fair chance of errors. Please report any errors, such that future versions have the correct equations and formulas. Thanks to the following people for providing me with suggestions and spotting errors: Neeharika Adabala, Martin Blais, Michael Chock, Chas Ehrlich, Piero Foscari, Neil Gatenby, Simon Green, Eric Haines, Paul Heckbert, Vladimir Koylazov, Vincent Ma, Ioannis (John) Pantazopoulos, Fabio Pellacini, Robert Porschka, Mahesh Ramasubramanian, Cyril Soler, Greg Ward, Steve Westin, Andrew Willmott.