CS 431/636 - Advanced Rendering Techniques

Spring 2008

Description: The creation of realistic images from 3D models is central to the development of computer graphics. The ray tracing algorithm has become one of the most popular and powerful techniques for creating photo-realistic images. Ray tracing's simplicity, elegance and ease of implementation make it one of the most important image generation algorithms in computer graphics. This class will explore in detail the algorithmic components of ray tracing.

These include

• Object representations
• Object-ray intersections
• Viewing/camera models
• Shading models
• Reflection & refraction models
• Acceleration techniques
• 2D/3D texture mapping
• Anti-aliasing & filtering
• Participating media

Students will implement many of these components in their class programming projects.

Images made by the students!

Location - University Crossings 149

Time - Tuesday, 6:00 PM &rarr 8:50 PM

Instructor

Dr. David Breen
University Crossing 114
david AT cs.drexel.edu
215-895-1626


Office Hours - Thursdays, 4PM &rarr 5:30 PM
Other times by appointment

• Teaching Assistant
  • Manolya Eyiyurekli
  • E-mail: me52_AT_drexel.edu

Textbooks

Recommended

• Ray Tracing from the Ground Up, Kevin Suffern, AK Peters, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-56881-272-4

Supplemental

• Realistic Ray Tracing, 2nd Edition, Peter Shirley and R. Keith Morley, AK Peters, 2003, ISBN: 978-1568811987
• An Introduction to Ray Tracing, Andrew S. Glassner (ed.), Morgan Kaufmann, 1989, ISBN: 978-0122861604

Grade

Graduate Section

• Programming Assignments - 90%
• In-class Presentation - 10%

  Undergraduate Section

• Programming Assignments - 95%
• Class Participation (Attend class on Week 5) - 5%

I intend to use the standard grading scale of 100→ 90 (A), 89→ 80 (B), 79→ 70 (C), 69→ 60 (D), else (F).
Please also note that incompletes will not be given for this course.

Each graduate student will present a research paper in class on a topic not covered by the regular class lectures.

Choose a paper from this list. It is a much shorter version of this list.

There will not be a final exam.

Assignments due at 11:59PM on due date
  Post images on the web and code on WebCT
  E-mail me the URL

Late Policy

• One point off per day late, up to a maximum of 5 points.
• All regular assignments due last day of classes at 11:59 PM.
• No Incompletes!

Assignments

Each regular assignment worth 10 points

Follow all of the instructions listed in the assignments.
5 points will be subtracted from an assignment if all of the instructions aren't followed.

• Programming Assignment 1 - Basic ray tracer with spheres and triangle meshes
  • Due April 14th
• Programming Assignment 2 - Add diffuse/specular shading model with point lights
  • Due April 25th
• Programming Assignment 3 - Add an acceleration technique
  • Due May 7th
• Programming Assignment 4 - Add adaptive supersampling/anti-aliasing
  • Due May 15th
• Programming Assignment 5 - Add shadows and reflections
  • Due May 28th
• Programming Assignment 6 - Add refractions
  • Due June 6th
• Extra Credit Assignment - Add 2D and 3D texture mapping, more primitives and directional lights
  • Due June 6th

Student Presentation Schedule

• Week 5
  • Linge Bai - W. Reeves, D. Salesin and R. Cook, "Rendering Antialiased Shadows with Depth Maps," Proc. SIGGRAPH '87, July 1987, pp. 283-291
  • Mark Dane - E. Gröller, "Nonlinear ray tracing: Visualizing strange worlds," The Visual Computer, 11(5):263-274, May 1995.
  • Patrick Smith - M. Potmesil and I. Chakravarty, "Modeling Motion Blur in Computer-Generated Images," Proc. SIGGRAPH '83, July 1983, pp. 389-99

  Class Schedule

  Week 1 - 4/1/08

  • Read Suffern: Chapters 1, 2, 3, 8 & 9
  • Read Shirley & Morley: Chapters 1, 2 & 3
  • Read Glassner: Chapters 1 & 7
  • Related paper
    • T. Whitted, "An Improved Illumination Model for Shaded Display," Communications of the ACM, Vol. 23, No. 6, June 1980, pp. 343-349
  • Lecture Topics - Class Logistics, Ray Tracing Fundamentals, Intersection Algorithms
    • Lecture slides 6 / page
  • Programming Assignment 1 - Basic ray tracer with spheres and triangle meshes

  Week 2 - 4/8/08

  • Read Suffern: Chapters 19, 20, 21 & 23
  • Read Shirley & Morley: Chapters 7 & 8
  • Read Glassner: Chapter 2
  • Lecture Topics - Polygonal Models, Transformations and Hierarchical Models
    • Lecture slides 6 / page
  • Assignment 1 due 4/14/08

  Week 3 - 4/15/08

  • Read Suffern: Chapters 13, 14, 15 & 18
  • Read Shirley & Morley: Chapter 11
  • Related paper
    • D. Warn, "Lighting Controls for Synthetic Images," ACM Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH '83 Proceedings), 1983, pp. 13-21
  • Lecture Topics - Color, Light and Shading Models
  • Programming Assignment 2 - Add diffuse/specular shading model with point lights

  Week 4 - 4/22/08

  • Read Suffern: Chapters 22
  • Read Shirley & Morley: Chapter 9
  • Read Glassner: Chapter 6
  • Lecture Topics - Acceleration Techniques
    • Lecture slides 6 / page
  • Programming Assignment 3 - Add an acceleration technique
  • Assignment 2 due 4/25/08

  Week 5 - 4/29/08

  • Linge Bai - W. Reeves, D. Salesin and R. Cook, "Rendering Antialiased Shadows with Depth Maps," Proc. SIGGRAPH '87, July 1987, pp. 283-291
  • Mark Dane - E. Gröller, "Nonlinear ray tracing: Visualizing strange worlds," The Visual Computer, 11(5):263-274, May 1995.
  • Patrick Smith - M. Potmesil and I. Chakravarty, "Modeling Motion Blur in Computer-Generated Images," Proc. SIGGRAPH '83, July 1983, pp. 389-99
  • Prof. Breen - H. Wann Jensen , "Global Illumination using Photon Maps ," Proc. 7th Eurographics Workshop on Rendering, 1996, pp. 21-30

  Week 6 - 5/6/08

  • Read Suffern: Chapters 4, 5, 6 & 7
  • Read Glassner: Chapter 5
  • Lecture Topics - Sampling & Anti-aliasing
  • D. Luebke's sampling notes
  • Programming Assignment 4 - Add adaptive supersampling/anti-aliasing
  • Assignment 3 due 5/7/08

  Week 7 - 5/13/08

  • Read Suffern: Chapters 16, 17, 24, 25, 27 & 28
  • Read Glassner: Chapter 4
  • Related paper
    • R. Hall and D. Greenberg, "A testbed for realistic image synthesis," IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Vol. 3, No. 8, November 1983, 10-20.
  • Lecture Topics - Hall Shading Model
    • Lecture slides 6 / page
  • Programming Assignment 5 - Add shadows and reflections
  • Assignment 4 due 5/15/08

  Week 8 - 5/20/08

  • Read Suffern: Chapters 29
  • Read Shirley & Morley: Chapter 6
  • Related paper
    • P. Heckbert, "Survey of Texture Mapping," IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Vol. 6, No. 11, Nov. 1986, pp. 56-67
  • Lecture Topics - 2D Texture Mapping

  Week 9 - 5/27/08

  • Read Suffern: Chapters 30 & 31
  • Read Shirley & Morley: Chapter 5
  • Related paper
    • K. Perlin, "An Image Synthesizer," Proc. SIGGRAPH '85, July 1985, pp. 287 - 296
  • Lecture Topics - Procedural & 3D Texture Mapping
    • Lecture slides 6 / page
  • Programming Assignment 6 - Add refractions
  • Assignment 5 due 5/28/08

  Week 10 - 6/3/08

  • Read Suffern: Chapters 10, 11, 12 & 26
  • Read Glassner: Chapter 3
  • Related paper
    • R.A. Drebin, L. Carpenter, and P. Hanrahan, "Volume Rendering," ACM Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH '88 Proceedings), 1988, pp. 65-74
    • D. Greenberg, M. Cohen and K. Torrance, " Radiosity: A method for computing global illumination," The Visual Computer, 2(5):291--7, September 1986.
  • Non-Photorealistic Rendering Publications
  • Lecture Topics - Volume Rendering, Non-photorealistic Rendering & Radiosity
  • Assignment 6 due 6/6/08
  • Extra credit assignment due 6/6/08

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  Last modified on April 29, 2008.