A parallel architecture for interactive rendering of scattering and refraction effects

Bernabei D., Hakke Patil A., Banterle F., Di Benedetto M., Ganovelli F., Pattanaik S., Scopigno R.

Ral Time rendering; Volume rendering; Scattering 

We present a new algorithm for the interactive rendering of complex lighting effects inside heterogeneous materials. Our approach combines accurate tracing of the light rays in heterogeneous refractive medium to compute high frequency phenomena, with a lattice-Boltzmann method to account for low-frequency multiple scattering effects. The presented technique is designed for parallel execution of these two algorithms on modern graphics hardware. In our solution, light marches from the sources into the medium, taking into account refraction, scattering and absorption. During the marching of the light rays inside the volumetric representation of the scene, irradiance is accumulated and it is diffused with the lattice-Boltzmann method to produce multiple scattering effects.

Source: ISTI Technical reports, 2011