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General Mathematics in Graphics Hardware

Caustics Frame The goal of this work was to explore the mathematical functionality available in graphics hardware by using it to perform a non-trivial calculation. Backward ray tracing is used to calculate the refraction due to a time-varying height field and the ensuing caustics reflected from a diffuse surface below the height field. For example, imagine swimming underwater in a pool on a sunny day and looking toward the (diffuse, white) bottom of the pool. The diffusion and extinction of light due to scattering by impurities in the water are simulated, and the depth of the pool bottom, the angle of the incident light, the amount of diffusion and extinction of the light, the height of the waves and the intensity of the incident light can be adjusted interactively.

Publications

  

Movies

These AVI and QuickTime movies of refraction are made off-line, but the caustics were generated in real-time.

 
Dynamic Graphics Project Department of Computer Science University of Toronto

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