An Object-Oriented Testbed for Global Illumination

Global illumination rendering involves the simulation of light interreflections between emitting and reflecting surfaces. Accounting for global illumination is necessary in the quest to generate images indistinguishable from real photographs. However, computing global illumination effects is a difficult problem and no algorithm published so far is capable of simulating all the effects in a reasonable amount of time. In this paper, we present a research testbed designed to facilitate experimentation on new global illumination algorithms. The testbed is object-oriented and encapsulates the basic components of rendering into classes that can be derived and overridden easily. The testbed allows new geometry, shading methods and display architecture to be added orthogonally. We have implemented a number of new rendering algorithms with the testbed and results are demonstrated.