LINEAR COLOR REPRESENTATIONS FOR EFFICIENT IMAGE SYNTHESIS

We present linear color representations for efficient color computatio n during image synthesis. The representations follow from describing t he spectral power distributions Of all light soul ces in a scene as su ms over sets of fixed basis functions. Surface and volume scattering e lements are given by matrices obtained by reprojecting every scattered spectral power distribution into a user-defined subspace of the wavel ength domain. This approach is a generalization of previous linear rep resentations, such as point sampling and other matrix methods. However , because both the basis and reprojection functions can be chosen for each rendering situation, the representations provide increased accura cy and flexibility for a variety of applications. Notably, the represe ntations can provide particularly efficient descriptions of lights and objects in local illumination renderers. Consequently, are a promisin g candidate for use in hardware-architecture rendering systems. We rev iew current hardware-accelerated commonly used for color-image synthes is and describe the extensions required to employ the linear color rep resentations. We then discuss and show examples from a prototype syste m that provides interactive rendering rates with accurate color comput ations. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.