Towards Interactive Photorealistic Rendering of Indoor Scenes: A Hybrid Approach

Photorealistic rendering methods produce accurate solutions to the rendering equation but are very computationally expensive and typically noninteractive. Some researchers have used graphics hardware to obtain photorealistic effects but not at interactive frame rates. We propose a technique to achieve near photorealism of simple indoor scenes at interactive rates using both CPUs and graphics hardware in parallel. This allows the user the flexibility of interactively moving objects as well as lights in the scene. Our goal is to introduce as many photorealistic effects as possible while maintaining a high frame rate . We describe methods of generating soft shadows, approximate one-bounce indirect lighting, and specular reflection and refraction effects.