Summary: Visualization and simulation using computer graphics have the same purpose of predicting how products will look before their completion. There are many examples that photon mapping improves the visualization by producing near-natural gradients of luminance in rooms. This study tests how photon mapping of Radiance affects the visualization of products in the rooms. In this study, I placed wine glasses in an entrance of my house, which is well-lighted by natural illumination, and took pictures and referenced them to confirm what phenomena were missing in the computer graphics rendered images. Referring to photographs for improving the visualization is one of the approaches to enhance the CG prediction quality of how products will look before their completion. I used the same approach to improve the CG lighting simulation of a bridge over a valley in 1999. In this study, I found that photon mapping can show the pattern of the coaster laid under the foot of the wine glass through the glass.The classic Radiance fails to show the coaster pattern through the glass viewing from certain angles where there is a conical gap between the coaster and the foot of the wine glass, cf. Figures 7, 8, and 9. In addition, in the current calculation, I have not reproduced the glowing white area around the boundary between the water surface and the wine glass's inner wall in rendered images, but it may not be caustics.

June 3, 2022

Yoichi Mizomata