Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping, 2nd Edition [Hardcover]

Henrik Wann Jensen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568811470 | ISBN-13: 978-1568811475 | Publication Date: July 18, 2001 | Edition: 2nd Revised edition

Photon mapping, an extension of ray tracing, makes it possible to efficiently simulate global illumination in complex scenes. Photon mapping can simulate caustics (focused light, like shimmering waves at the bottom of a swimming pool), diffuse inter-reflections (e.g., the "bleeding" of colored light from a red wall onto a white floor, giving the floor a reddish tint), and participating media (such as clouds or smoke). This book is a practical guide to photon mapping; it provides the theory and practical insight necessary to implement photon mapping and simulate all types of direct and indirect illumination efficiently.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In his well presented and very well researched book, Henrik Wann Jensen demonstrates the technique of photon mapping…I found the book to be well written and thorough…The primary audience for this book will be computer graphics researchers in either industry or academia interested in creating highly realistic images, and computer graphics students at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level. The introduction and background chapters are particularly well written, making this a useful text for a graduate-level course in image synthesis.”-Bruce Gooch, SIAM Review, August 2002 --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Henrik Wann Jensen is an associate professor at the University of California at San Diego, where he works in the computer graphics lab. His research is focused on realistic image synthesis, global illumination, rendering of natural phenomena, and appearance modeling. In 2004, Professor Jensen received an Academy Award (Technical Achievement Award) from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for pioneering research in rendering translucent materials. He also became a Sloan Fellow and he was selected as one of the top 10 scientists in 2004 by Popular Science magazine. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 193 pages
• Publisher: A K Peters/CRC Press; 2nd Revised edition edition (July 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568811470
• ISBN-13: 978-1568811475
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #733,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars cool, November 11, 2001

By 

Harrison Ainsworth - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping, 2nd Edition (Hardcover)

concise but clear and contains all the useful info, developing the photon mapping technique with a practical attitude through the course of the book, viewing related ideas along the way. its probably best if you already have some understanding of how BRDFs, monte-carlo, and raytracing work.

one of the appeals of this branch of graphics is that the core concepts are simple and general - particles of light moving in straight lines and bouncing off things - something that is easy to grasp. but where this is so often clouded with equations when reading research papers, this book doesnt forget that computer graphics is about algorithms, and it explores those basic concepts in that way. mathematics just provides some checkpoints.

at the end its become quite a complex system, but still not perfect. by then though, youll be wondering about your own possible extensions or variations... hmmm...

if youve had an inclination to investigate the ray/path/particle-tracing side of graphics, or if you want to develop a high-quality renderer then this is a must have.

(i think the marble bust is artemis. hail artemis!)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very thorough, December 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping, 2nd Edition (Hardcover)

The book is quite well laid out, and guides you through an introduction to photometry, the data structures and algorithms involved, and so forth. There is quite an extensive bibliography, which I found quite helpful. All in all, we found this guide was invaluable while implementing a renderer using photon mapping.

On the other hand, his sample code is atrocious, with well-thought-out variable names like "foo" and "foo_photon" and nary a comment to be seen. Although you can pick through the worst of it, you're almost better off not bothering - just pick up your algorithms text from university and just start reading. Quite a disappointment after reading an otherwise excellent book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best technical book I have ever read, January 14, 2005

By 

a fan "InFlux" (Emeryville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping, 2nd Edition (Hardcover)

Photon mapping is an extremely powerful global illumination algorithm. It is probably the most important thing that happened to rendering in the last ten years, in my humble oppinion.

Its inventer, Jensen did an exceptional job at explaining it with this book. The way the book is put togather is sublime. It goes into detailed explanation of the foundations and previous works in computer graphics to be pertinent rather than tedious. If you understand the math that he presented to you, great! But what's really cool is that the math will tend to make more and more sense intuitively as you read and implement the algorithm. You will probably need some form of computer science background (analysis of algorithms and at least one computer graphics course) to fully appreciate it. But anyone should be able to implement a photon mapper in C++ after reading the book. Jensen even gives you the source code for a photon map, all you need is to write a ray tracer.

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who is interested in computer graphics, especially if you are interested in rendering. Every CS student in rendering should write a hemicube radiosity renderer and a photon mapper... or at least own this book.