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A survey of photon mapping state-of-the-art research and future challenges

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Abstract

Global illumination is the core part of photo-realistic rendering. The photon mapping algorithm is an effective method for computing global illumination with its obvious advantage of caustic and color bleeding rendering. It is an active research field that has been developed over the past two decades. The deficiency of precise details and efficient rendering are still the main challenges of photon mapping. This report reviews recent work and classifies it into a set of categories including radiance estimation, photon relaxation, photon tracing, progressive photon mapping, and parallel methods. The goals of our report are giving readers an overall introduction to photon mapping and motivating further research to address the limitations of existing methods.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Technology, Shandong University, Jinan, 250101, China

    Chun-meng Kang, Lu Wang, Yan-ning Xu & Xiang-xu Meng

  2. Engineering Research Center of Digital Media Technology, Ministry of Education, Jinan, 250101, China

    Chun-meng Kang, Lu Wang, Yan-ning Xu & Xiang-xu Meng

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  1. Chun-meng Kang
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  2. Lu Wang
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  3. Yan-ning Xu
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  4. Xiang-xu Meng
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Correspondence to Lu Wang.

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Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61472224 and 61472225), the Young Scholars Program of Shandong University, China (No. 2015WLJH41), the Shandong Key Research and Development Program, China (No. 2015GGX106006), the Special Funding of Independent Innovation and Transformation of Achievements in Shandong Province of China (No. 2014ZZCX08201), and the Special Funds of Taishan Scholar Construction Project, China

ORCID: Chun-meng KANG, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0156-058X

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Kang, Cm., Wang, L., Xu, Yn. et al. A survey of photon mapping state-of-the-art research and future challenges. Frontiers Inf Technol Electronic Eng 17, 185–199 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1631/FITEE.1500251

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