Temporally Coherent Adaptive Sampling for Imperfect Shadow Maps

Abstract

We propose a new adaptive algorithm for determining virtual point lights (VPL) in the scope of real-time instant radiosity methods, which use a limited number of VPLs. The proposed method is based on Metropolis-Hastings sampling and exhibits better temporal coherence of VPLs, which is particularly important for real-time applications dealing with dynamic scenes. We evaluate the properties of the proposed method in the context of the algorithm based on imperfect shadow maps and compare it with the commonly used inverse transform method. The results indicate that the proposed technique can significantly reduce the temporal flickering artifacts even for scenes with complex materials and textures. Further, we propose a novel splatting scheme for imperfect shadow maps using hardware tessellation. This scheme significantly improves the rendering performance particularly for complex and deformable scenes. We thoroughly analyze the performance of the proposed techniques on test scenes with detailed materials, moving camera, and deforming geometry.