20120256939 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPORTANCE SAMPLING OF AREA LIGHTS IN PARTICIPATING MEDIA - Provided are systems and methods that address the problem of single scattering in homogeneous volumes. In one implementation, an importance sampling technique is provided that avoids a singularity near point light sources. The system and method can be extended to the situation of area lights of arbitrary shapes. The error caused by the non-constant distance to the finite-extent area light is distributed by using random sample points within the area light as points from which lighting is calculated for sampling points along the ray. | 10-11-2012 |