Virtual spherical lights for many-light rendering of glossy scenes

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to lift the accuracy limitations of many-light algorithms by introducing a new light type, the virtual spherical light (VSL). The illumination contribution of a VSL is computed over a non-zero solid angle, thus eliminating the illumination spikes that virtual point lights used in traditional many-light methods are notorious for. The VSL enables application of many-light approaches in scenes with glossy materials and complex illumination that could previously be rendered only by much slower algorithms. By combining VSLs with the matrix row-column sampling algorithm, we achieve high-quality images in one to four minutes, even in scenes where path tracing or photon mapping take hours to converge.