Photon Mapping Renderer

The implementation includes an optional kd-tree to accelerate photon searches. The images below demonstrate the performance difference when using the kd-tree versus a linear search approach.

With kd-Tree

Without kd-Tree

As shown, utilizing a kd-tree significantly enhances rendering performance by reducing the time complexity of photon searches, especially in scenes with a large number of photons.

Overview

Photon Mapping is a robust global illumination algorithm widely used in realistic rendering applications. This project implements a photon mapping renderer in C++, providing high-quality lighting effects such as caustics, soft shadows, and indirect illumination.

Features

• Global Illumination: Achieve realistic lighting by simulating the behavior of photons as they interact with surfaces.
• Photon Map Construction: Efficiently store and retrieve photon information using a custom kd-tree implementation.
• Scene Management: Easily set up scenes with various geometric objects, materials, and light sources.
• Performance Optimization: Optimize rendering performance with a kd-tree for rapid photon searches.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• C++17 Compiler: Ensure you have a C++17 compatible compiler installed.
• CMake: Version 3.18 or higher.
• Build Tools: Make or any other build system supported by CMake.

Installation

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/photon-mapping-renderer.git
   cd photon-mapping-renderer

2. Create a Build Directory

   mkdir build
   cd build

3. Run CMake

   cmake ..

4. Build the Project

   make

5. Build Document

      doxygen Doxyfile

Usage

After building the project, you can run the renderer with the following command:

./bin/photon-mapping

This will render an image with the default resolution of 4096x4096 pixels and save it as output.ppm in the project directory.

The Doxygen document is in <projectFolder>/doc/html/index.html.

Reference

This project is based on the seminal work by Henrik Wann Jensen:

Global Illumination using Photon Maps Rendering Techniques ’96 (Proceedings of the Seventh Eurographics Workshop on Rendering), pages 21–30, 1996 Henrik Wann Jensen Department of Graphical Communication The Technical University of Denmark [email protected] http://www.gk.dtu.dk/~hwj

For more detailed information, please refer to the original paper.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Happy Rendering!