Realistic Rendering of Birefringency in Uniaxial Crystals

Andrea Weidlich, Alexander Wilkie
Realistic Rendering of Birefringency in Uniaxial Crystals
ACM Transactions on Graphics, 27(1):6:1-6:12, March 2008. [ paper]
Content:

Information

Abstract

In this paper we derive the complete set of formulas which is needed to generate physically plausible images of uniaxial crystals. So far no computer graphics publication contains all the formulas one needs to compute the interaction of light with such crystals in a form that is useable by a graphics application, especially if a polarisation-aware rendering system is being used.

This paper contains the complete derivation of the Fresnel coefficients for birefringent transparent materials, as well as for the direction cosines of the extraordinary ray and the Mueller matrices necessary to describe polarisation effects. The formulas we derive can be directly used in a ray based renderer, and we demonstrate these capabilities in test scenes.

Additional Files and Images

Additional files:
paper paper: full journal paper

BibTeX

Download BibTeX-Entry
@article{weidlich_2007_rrbuc,
  title =      "Realistic Rendering of Birefringency in Uniaxial Crystals",
  author =     "Andrea Weidlich and Alexander Wilkie",
  year =       "2008",
  abstract =   "In this paper we derive the complete set of formulas which
               is needed to generate physically plausible images of
               uniaxial crystals. So far no computer graphics publication
               contains all the formulas one needs to compute the
               interaction of light with such crystals in a form that is
               useable by a graphics application, especially if a
               polarisation-aware rendering system is being used.  This
               paper contains the complete derivation of the Fresnel
               coefficients for birefringent transparent materials, as well
               as for the direction cosines of the extraordinary ray and
               the Mueller matrices necessary to describe polarisation
               effects. The formulas we derive can be directly used in a
               ray based renderer, and we demonstrate these capabilities in
               test scenes.",
  pages =      "6:1--6:12",
  month =      mar,
  number =     "1",
  journal =    "ACM Transactions on Graphics",
  volume =     "27",
  keywords =   "polarization, crystals, Birefringence",
  URL =        "http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2008/weidlich_2007_rrbuc/",
}