Patent Document ID: 20020080136
Application ID: 09899802
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. An improved method for surface shading comprising: (a) determining surface characteristics and geometry parameters of a surface of an object in a scene during development of a computer graphics (CG) program; (b) determining for a frame of the scene an incoming light direction illuminating the surface of the object and an outgoing direction of viewing the object in the scene; (c) applying a selected bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model to compute light reflectance values for a sampling of a distribution of normal direction vectors for light reflectance from the surface of the object in the frame of the scene based upon the incoming and outgoing light directions and the surface characteristics and geometry parameters of the surface of the object; (d) storing the sampled BRDF values as a texture map of light reflectance for surface shading of the object in the frame of the scene; and (e) performing surface shading of the object during real-time rendering by applying the sampled BRDF values in correspondence to normal direction vectors for points on the surface of the object in the frame of the scene.