A new method renders scratched and flaked metallic surfaces over a hundred times faster than previous techniques, adding only 40% to standard render times. The approach works on curved surfaces and provides a closed-form solution. A free master-level course on light simulation is available from the Technical University of Vienna.
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Over a hundred times faster.
Approximately 40% longer render time.
Technical University of Vienna.
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Dear fellow scholars, this is two minute papers. With light simulation programs, we are able to populate a virtual scene with objects, assign material models to them and create a beautiful photorealistic image of this digital scene. The theory of light transport follows the physics of light. Therefore these images should be indistinguishable from reality and fortunately they often are. However, there are some cases when we can tell them apart from real images and and the reason for this is not the inaccuracies of the light transport algorithm, but the oversimplifications used in the geometry and material models. The main issue is that in our mathematical models, these materials are often defined to be too perfect. But in reality, metals are rarely perfectly polished and the classical material models in light transport can rarely capture these microstructures that make surfaces imperfect. This algorithm is about rendering new material models that can represent the imperfect materials like scratched coating and metallic flakes on car paint, a leather sofa, wooden floor or a teapot. Just look at these phenomenal images. Previous techniques exist to solve this problem, but they take extremely long and are typically limited to flat surfaces. One of the main difficulties of the problem is that these tiny flakes and scratches are typically orders of magnitude smaller than a pixel and therefore they require a lot of care and additional computations to render. This work provides an exact closed form solution to this that is highly efficient to render. It is over a hundred times faster than previous techniques, has less limitations as it works on curved surfaces, and it only takes 40% longer to render it compared to the standard perfect material models. Only 40% more time for this. Sign me up. It is truly incredible that we can create images of this sophistication using science. It is also highly practical as it can be plugged in as a standard material model without any crazy modifications to the simulation program. Looking forward to seeing some amazing animations using more and more realistic material models in the near future. If you would like to learn more about light simulations, I have been holding a full master level course on it at the Technical University of Vienna for a few years now. After a while, I got a strong feeling that the teachings shouldn't only be available for the lucky 30 people in the classroom who can afford a college education. The teachings should be available for everyone. And now the entirety of this course is available free of charge for everyone, where we learn the theory of light from scratch and implement a really cool light simulation program together. If you want to solve a few infinite dimensional integrals with me, give it a go. And as always, details are available in the video description. Thanks for watching and for your generous support, and I'll see you next time.
