Light-Source Modeling Using Pyramidal Light Maps

The diversity of lighting arrangements and fixtures in everyday life allows us great creative and functional control over the appearance of our environments. In computer graphics, the lack of realistic models of light sources does not permit the same level of control. To model a light source, one must (at least) be able to specify its geometry and its spatial intensity distribution. We describe a system that permits the interactive specification of point, linear, and area light sources having arbitrary and variable spatial intensity distributions across their domains. A continuous distribution of an extended light source is created by interpolating a set of sample distributions that are interactively placed on the light source. Rendering is accomplished by resampling the light source at a variable resolution. To speed up rendering, a pyramidal representation of the light source is created, allowing the dynamic selection of the resampling rate. We describe the theory, design, and implementation of our light-source modeling system. Pyramidal light-source models can be used in rendering environments such as conventional scanline or ray-tracing renderers, or renderers with programmable shaders.