Physically Based Rendering, Second Edition: From Theory To Implementation [Hardcover]

Matt Pharr (Author), Greg Humphreys (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 12, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0123750792 | ISBN-13: 978-0123750792 | Edition: 2

Physically Based Rendering, 2^nd Edition describes both the mathematical theory behind a modern photorealistic rendering system as well as its practical implementation. A method - known as 'literate programming'- combines human-readable documentation and source code into a single reference that is specifically designed to aid comprehension. The result is a stunning achievement in graphics education. Through the ideas and software in this book, you will learn to design and employ a full-featured rendering system for creating stunning imagery.

• New sections on subsurface scattering, Metropolis light transport, precomputed light transport, multispectral rendering, and much more.
• Includes a companion site complete with source code for the rendering system described in the book, with support for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Please visit, www.pbrt.org.
• Code and text are tightly woven together through a unique indexing feature that lists each function, variable, and method on the page that they are first described.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Physically Based Rendering is a terrific book. It covers all the marvelous math, fascinating physics, practical software engineering, and clever tricks that are necessary to write a state-of-the-art photorealistic renderer. All of these topics are dealt with in a clear and pedagogical manner without omitting the all-important practical details."--Per Christensen Senior Software Developer, RenderMan Products Pixar Animation Studios

"Intended for graduate or advanced undergraduate students in a computer graphics course, this large volume provides a comprehensive examination of complex rendering algorithms and demonstrates, through detailed examination of source code and example projects, the practical development and application of cutting edge image creation and processing software. This second edition is updated to reflect current technologies and contains updated information on relevant recent hardware improvements such as advanced multi-core processors as well as an increased focus on production graphics techniques. The text includes numerous illustrations, code examples, and formulas as well as recommendations for further reading and chapter exercises. Pharr is a principle engineer for Intel and Humphreys is an engineer for NVIDIA and a former professor of computer science at the University of Virginia."--SciTech Book News

"Pharr and Humphreys' textbook is beautifully typeset, thoroughly indexed, unendingly cross-referenced, extensively illustrated, and printed in full color. Given its unconventional preparation style, this textbook stands out because of its descriptions of the tradeoffs involved in developing a complete working renderer. Although somewhat verbose at times, the discussions of design tradeoffs and performance considerations are an excellent complement to the more traditional coverage of the theory behind photorealistic rendering. C++ idioms sometimes get in the way of more elegant solutions, but their use is always reasonably justified. If you are just looking for a general introduction to image synthesis and rendering, standard graphics textbooks [2] might fit the bill; however, if you intend to develop your own renderer or try out new ideas, this textbook provides an excellent starting point."--Computing Reviews.com

From the Back Cover

Physically Based Rendering, 2^nd Edition describes both the mathematical theory behind a modern photorealistic rendering system as well as its practical implementation. A method - known as 'literate programming'- combines human-readable documentation and source code into a single reference that is specifically designed to aid comprehension. The result is a stunning achievement in graphics education. Through the ideas and software in this book, you will learn to design and employ a full-featured rendering system for creating stunning imagery.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1200 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 2 edition (July 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0123750792
• ISBN-13: 978-0123750792
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,894 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Rendering & Ray Tracing
  • #23 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > 3D Graphics
  • #51 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Game Programming

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars DO NOT BUY Kindle Edition November 20, 2012

By xdarby

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is not a comment about the book contents but simply a big warning for the digital format. Almost all equations were simply images scanned from the books. And reference links or cited pages were either wrong or dead. Why the hell there's a kindle version anyway? And such bad qualities and useless print still costs 58 USD, hard-cover is only 5 bucks more. I know I'm stupid, but please stop scamming money out of nerds.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Thorough Guide on Rendering September 27, 2010

By GX VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

For any developer that has experienced Alias|Wavefront Maya, Bryce or Softimage and wants to take the dive into nitty gritty of rendering engines you will find no better guide. Matt and Greg comprehensively cover more than a thousand pages of content and for each topic, whether it be cylinders & spheres, the refraction of different materials or the antialiasing techniques and in each case they show - by example - how the mathematical theories are applied in practice and how to convert the models into C++ with plenty of hands on opportunities with the pbrt ray tracer. pbrt itself is fairly robust and includes a great set of plugins such as a Maya Exporter to export scenes from Maya in the pbrt format.

Also of mention - the book quality is top notch with plenty of quality full color images which do justice to the 3d shapes & scenes. The paper can be a bit thin and see-through but that is the tradeoff to make a book of this depth.

Table of contents for the second edition:
CHAPTER 01. INTRODUCTION - pbrt: System Overview

CHAPTER 02. GEOMETRY AND TRANSFORMATIONS - Coordinate Systems, Vectors, Arithmetic, Scaling, Transformations Rays...

CHAPTER 03. SHAPES - Spheres, Cylinders, Disks, Triangles and Meshes...

CHAPTER 04. PRIMITIVES AND INTERSECTION ACCELERATION - Aggregates, Grid Accelerator, Bounding Volume Hierarchies

CHAPTER 05. COLOR AND RADIOMETRY

CHAPTER 06. CAMERA MODELS

CHAPTER 07. SAMPLING AND RECONSTRUCTION

CHAPTER 08. REFLECTION MODELS

CHAPTER 09. MATERIALS - Bump Mapping...

CHAPTER 10. TEXTURE

CHAPTER 11. VOLUME SCATTERING - Volume Scattering Processes

CHAPTER 12. LIGHT SOURCES -Light Interface, Visibility Testing, Point Lights, Spotlights...

CHAPTER 13. MONTE CARLO INTEGRATION I: BASIC CONCEPTS

CHAPTER 14. MONTE CARLO INTEGRATION II: IMPROVING EFFICIENCY - Russian Roulette and Splitting

CHAPTER 15. LIGHT TRANSPORT I: SURFACE REFLECTION - Direct Lighting, Path Tracing

CHAPTER 16. LIGHT TRANSPORT II: VOLUME RENDERING - Subsurface Scattering

CHAPTER 17. LIGHT TRANSPORT III: PRECOMPUTED LIGHT TRANSPORT - Spherical Harmonics, Radiance Probes...

CHAPTER 18. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

APPENDIXES

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars best of what's out there August 30, 2010

By The Lone Wolf VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This is a great book that enables programmers to build a functional raytracer for photorealistic rendering. This is not an introductory book! You really need to know the ropes to make something out of it, otherwise it is a waste of time.

The preface identifies the new aspects that make this edition different from the 1st edition. It is worth noting that the book includes no media, but directs you to the webpage of the book to obtain the source code you may need.

The book covers briefly the basic aspects of literal programming and photo-realistic rendering using real code as example, then delves deep into the formulation of a working raytracer, covering the techniques, algorithms and identifying potential pitfalls and shortcuts. A good thing about the book is that it is quite advanced and not aimed at novices, but, unlike other manuals in highly specialized fields, it is not a collection of research papers thrown together to beef up someone's resume. This is a well-crafted, for-real book aimed to professional renderers, researchers and advanced grad students in computer imaging and computer science.