A Photon Tracing Approach to Solve Inverse Rendering Problems

Lighting intentions are the goals and constraints that designers like to achieve in a lighting design process. In this context, rendering problems are the kind of problems based on the rendering equation that are proposed to satisfy a set of lighting intentions. These problems are usually expressed as optimization problems. In this article is presented a novel method based on photon tracing, the VNS optimization metaheuristic, and the determination of the number of photons needed, which allows to handle a wider variety of lighting intentions without incurring in high computational costs. Moreover, the method developed shows to be efficient when the geometry is also a variable in the rendering problem. The techniques explained here could be included in a package used by architects or designers to aid in the lighting design process of architectural environments.