Form-Factors for General Environments

Abstract

A new algorithm, based on the hemi-cube formulation, which calculates the form-factors required by the solution of the rendering equation, is presented. The concept of form-factors of the standard radiosity method is developed, In particular, the concept of specular form-factors is proposed. These new form-factors are also purely geometric terms describing the transfer of energy from one surface to another within a non-diffuse environment. The new form-factor is evaluated by numerical integrations based on the hemi-cube algorithm. The equations of the effective diffuse radiosity are presented and solved by numerical methods. The extension fully develops the characteristic of radiosity method and successfully solves the view-independent energy transfer in a general environment.