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An improved illumination model for shaded display
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Communications of the ACM archive
Volume 23 ,  Issue 6  (June 1980) table of contents
Pages: 343 - 349  
Year of Publication: 1980
ISSN:0001-0782
Author
Turner Whitted  Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ
Publisher
ACM  New York, NY, USA
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Downloads (6 Weeks): 61,   Downloads (12 Months): 478,   Citation Count: 233
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ABSTRACT

To accurately render a two-dimensional image of a three-dimensional scene, global illumination information that affects the intensity of each pixel of the image must be known at the time the intensity is calculated. In a simplified form, this information is stored in a tree of “rays” extending from the viewer to the first surface encountered and from there to other surfaces and to the light sources. A visible surface algorithm creates this tree for each pixel of the display and passes it to the shader. The shader then traverses the tree to determine the intensity of the light received by the viewer. Consideration of all of these factors allows the shader to accurately simulate true reflection, shadows, and refraction, as well as the effects simulated by conventional shaders. Anti-aliasing is included as an integral part of the visibility calculations. Surfaces displayed include curved as well as polygonal surfaces.


REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

 
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Appel, A. Some techniques for shading machine renderings of solids. AFIPS 1968 Spring Joint Comptr. Conf., pp. 37-45.
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Bouknight, W.K., and Kelley, K.C. An algorithm for producing half-tone computer graphics presentations with shadows and movable light sources. AFIPS 1970 Spring Joint Comptr. Conf., pp. 1-10.
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Catmull, E. A subdivision algorithm for computer display of curved surfaces. UTEC CSc-74-133, Comptr. Sci. Dept., Univ. of Utah, 1974.
 
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Catmull, E., and Clark, J. Recursively generated B-spline surfaces on arbitrary topological meshes. Comptr. Aided Design 10, 6 (Nov. 1978), 350-355.
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Jarvis, J.F., Judice, C.N., and Ninke, W.H. A survey of techniques for the display of continuous tone pictures on bilevel displays. Comptr. Graphics and Image Proc. 5 (1976), 13M0.
 
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Kay, D.S. Transparency, refraction, and ray tracing for computer synthesized images. Masters thesis, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y., January 1979.
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Warnock, J.E. A hidden line algorithm for halftone picture representation. Tech. Rep. TR 4-15, Comptr. Sci. Dept., Univ. of Utah, 1969.
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CITED BY  233