A curvature based lightning model for quasi-global diffuse illumination

Abstract

In this paper we present extensions to local illumination models that take into account light transport and shadowmasking effects in the neighborhood of the surface point under evaluation. Central to our approach is the idea that local curvature represents geometric features in the surrounding neighborhood of this point which have an attenuating or enhancing effect regarding the diffuse illumination of this point. We introduce a lighting model that controls the amount of locally scattered light from the neighborhood based on a local curvature metric. The properties we aim at modeling with this curvature-based illumination model can be found in highly diffuse reflecting materials such as for example snow.