What is radiosity ?

First we will briefly review the lighting simulation method called radiosity. It is particularly suitable for indoor scenes since it considers all light interreflexions. For example, the table is illuminated by the light reflected by the wall.

The surfaces are assumed to be diffuse. This means that the light is reflected the same way in all directions.

The scene is divided into patches where the illumination is assumed constant.

Then the interreflexions can be expressed as a linear system where the unknowns are the radiosities of the patches. Once the system is solved, the solution can be rendered with smooth shading.

Next : A short review of the visibility complex

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