Tracing Ray Differentials

Tracing Ray Differentials

https://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/trd/

Homan Igehy, Stanford University

Appears in the Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH '99 Proceedings)

Abstract:

Antialiasing of ray traced images is typically performed by super-sampling the image plane. While this type of filtering works well for many algorithms, it is much more efficient to perform filtering locally on a surface for algorithms such as texture mapping. In order to perform this type of filtering, one must not only trace the ray passing through the pixel, but also have some approximation of the distance to neighboring rays hitting the surface (i.e., a ray�s footprint). In this paper, we present a fast, simple, robust scheme for tracking such a quantity based on ray differentials, derivatives of the ray with respect to the image plane.

Download paper:

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Read the addendum:

In the paper, equation (12) is derived for a planar surface, and it is stated without proof that this is valid for arbitrary surfaces. The addendum proves this statement.

Pictures:

• Sample scene

  Footprint based on ray distance

  bilinear / base texture	trilinear / mip map

  Footprint based on ray differential

  trilinear / mip map	anisotropic / mip map

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homan@graphics.stanford.edu