Efficient Inhomogeneous Translucent Material Rendering Based on Probability Adjustment of Photon Distribution

To address the high cost of inhomogeneous translucent material rendering, this paper presents an efficient rendering algorithm for inhomogeneous translucent objects based on probability adjustment of photon distribution. Firstly, the focusing area is computed by the frustum of rendering image. Then photons are randomly generated from light sources and traced according to volumetric photon mapping algorithm. If a photon intersects with the focusing area, its distribution probability is adjusted by decreasing its power and increasing its distribution probability in the focusing area. Finally, high power photons are split in the dimensions of angle and distance respectively during probability adjustment to satisfy the uniform photon power constraint inside the focusing area. Experimental results show that this algorithm can significantly increase photon density inside the focusing area and effectively reduce the computation cost of inhomogeneous translucent material rendering.