Patent ID: 7609265

Claim:
A method performed by a computer of producing radiance self transfer data representing radiance response including global transport effects for use in real-time rendering and display of computer graphics images of a volumetric model, the method comprising: performing a global illumination simulation over the volume for a reference lighting environment represented as a linear combination of area-supported basis functions, the simulation calculating radiance transfer for a plurality of volume elements of the volumetric model, the simulation incorporating self-shadowing and inter-reflections of the volumetric model; and recording the global illumination simulation for the plurality of volume elements as a linear transformation of the basis functions' coefficients for use in rendering radiance transfer over the volumetric model to produce graphical images of the volumetric model; performing the global illumination simulation in multiple passes over the volumetric model; in a first shadowing pass, simulating direct illumination of a plurality of volume elements of the volumetric model in the reference lighting environment including attenuation along a path through the volumetric model; in subsequent interreflection passes, simulating interreflection illumination of the volume elements of the volumetric model by other volume elements of the volumetric model, including attenuation through the volumetric model; repeating interreflection passes until a criteria is met; summing for a sample point the radiance transfer data accumulated in the first shadowing pass and subsequent interreflection passes to produce total radiance transfer for the sample point; and rendering a viewable image on an output device based at least in part on the radiance self transfer data.