Validation proposal for global illumination and rendering techniques

The goal of this study is to develop a complete set of data characterizing geometry, luminaires, and surfaces of a nontrivial existing environment for testing global illumination and rendering techniques. This paper briefly discusses the process of data acquisition. Also, the results of experiments on evaluating lighting simulation accuracy, and rendering fidelity for a Density Estimation Particle Tracing algorithm are presented. The importance of using the BRDF of surfaces in place of the more commonly used specular and diffuse reflectance coefficients is investigated for the test scene. The results obtained are contrasted with an "artistic approach" in which a skilled artist manually sets all reflectance characteristics to obtain a visually pleasant appearance that corresponds to the existing environment. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.