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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Area Sampling Machine

Abstract

dc:description

Tracing a ray in a typical image synthesis system accomplishes two tasks: it samples in the ray direction for a visible object, and then determines the shading at that sampled point. The sampling process can be thought of as a visibility test along the path of the ray having zero cross sectional area. Recent photorealistic image synthesis work has generally ignored the results from earlier visibility determination research. In the first part of this thesis we introduce the Area Sampling Buffer, an algorithm that allows the use of z-buffer hardware in assisting area sampling for a ray tracing style renderer. The implementation issues involved in discretizing the sampling area and light source area will be discussed and solutions proposed. The second part of the thesis discuss the Area Sampling Machine, a parallel architecture designed to take advantage of the characteristics of the Area Sampling Buffer. The basic processing unit of the Area Sampling Machine is a z-buffer style scan converter. By adopting a mature technology and designing a simple parallel system, it becomes possible to dramatically speedup global illumination renderers while at the same time achieving low cost.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph.D.
Level thesis:degree_level
Dissertation
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Computer Science
Grantor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Year dc:date
2014

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Sung, Hsien Ching Kelvin
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Kubitz, William J.

Subjects

dc:subject × 2

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Identifier
(UMI)AAI9305709
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/72075

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Base URL
www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Sung, Hsien Ching Kelvin. The Area Sampling Machine. Dissertation thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/72075