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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/72075
Description
Title
The Area Sampling Machine
Author(s)
Sung, Hsien Ching Kelvin
Issue Date
1992
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Kubitz, William J.
Department of Study
Computer Science
Discipline
Computer Science
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Engineering, Electronics and Electrical
Computer Science
Abstract
Tracing a ray in a typical image synthesis system accomplishes two tasks: it samples in the ray direction for a visible object, and then determines the shading at that sampled point. The sampling process can be thought of as a visibility test along the path of the ray having zero cross sectional area. Recent photorealistic image synthesis work has generally ignored the results from earlier visibility determination research. In the first part of this thesis we introduce the Area Sampling Buffer, an algorithm that allows the use of z-buffer hardware in assisting area sampling for a ray tracing style renderer. The implementation issues involved in discretizing the sampling area and light source area will be discussed and solutions proposed. The second part of the thesis discuss the Area Sampling Machine, a parallel architecture designed to take advantage of the characteristics of the Area Sampling Buffer. The basic processing unit of the Area Sampling Machine is a z-buffer style scan converter. By adopting a mature technology and designing a simple parallel system, it becomes possible to dramatically speedup global illumination renderers while at the same time achieving low cost.
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