Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Eth Zurich (eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Zurich)

Wenzel A Jakob

Wojciech Matusik

Wojciech Jarosz

Marios Papas

Szymon Marek Rusinkiewicz

Tim A Weyrich

Jan Novák

Wojciech Krzysztof Jarosz

Benedikt Martin Bitterli

Systems, methods and articles of manufacture for rendering three-dimensional virtual environments using reversible jumps are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, mappings from random numbers to light paths are modeled as an explicit iterative random walk. Inverses of path construction techniques are employed to turn light transport paths back into the random numbers that produced them. In particular, such inverses may be used to extend the Multiplexed Metropolis Light Transport (MMLT) technique to perform path-invariant perturbations that produce a new path sample using a different path construction technique but preserve the path's geometry. To render an image, a rendering application in one embodiment may trace light paths through a virtual scene, with some path samples being generated by probabilistically selecting one or more techniques through technique perturbation and using inverses of the selected technique(s) to invert existing path(s), and with new paths being obtained by mutating or perturbing existing paths.

Informed choices in primary sample space for light transport simulation

Techniques are described for designing and manufacturing a surface that produces a desired image when illuminated by a light source. As described, the desired image may be decomposed into a collection of Gaussian kernels (referred to as Gaussians). A shape of a micropatch lens corresponding to each Gaussian may be determined, and the resulting micropatch lenses may be assembled to form a highly continuous surface that will cast an approximation of the desired image formed form the sum of a plurality of Gaussian caustics. The disclosed techniques may be used to create a design for a light-redirecting surface amenable to milling (or other manufacturing process).

Reflective and refractive surfaces configured to project desired caustic pattern

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Karlsruhe, Germany

Wenzel A Jakob