Hierarchical and Monte Carlo techniques for radiosity

Since the introduction of the radiosity method for image synthesis in 1984, many improvements to it have been proposed. Some of these, such as the computation of form factors using the hemicube algorithm and Southwell iterations for solving the radiosity set of equations, have made that the radiosity method begins to emerge in commercial rendering software systems. These techniques appeared in scientific literature more than 10 years ago.

In this talk, I will give an overview of techniques that appeared since then to make the radiosity method more efficient, user friendly and reliable. Two of these, hierarchical refinement, based on wavelet theory, and the solution of the radiosity system of equations by using Monte Carlo simulation, will be discussed in more detail. A combination of hierarchical refinement and Monte Carlo promises to make radiosity feasible for complex models, even on low cost platforms.