Approximate Radiosity Using Stochastic Depth Buffering

Abstract

This paper presents a simple technique for computing approximate radiosity by using a novel approach to visibility determination called stochastic depth buffering. By rendering random depth buffer values and using a simple sampling scheme, we gather light from parallel, global directions using the GPU. The technique makes it possible to quickly update indirect light on commodity graphics hardware. It is easy to implement and offers good trade-offs between performance and visual quality.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Morten Mikkelsen, Manny Ko, Jon Rocatis and Kasper Engelstoft for their helpful comments. Also thanks to Paul Debevec for his light probes. Finally, thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism.