Real-Time Relighting of Compressed Panoramas Tien-Tsin Wong , Siu-Hang Or and Chi-Wing Fu Graphics Programming Methods, Edited by Jeff Lander, Charles River Media, 2003, pp. 375-388.

Abstract

Panorama is a simple representation for modeling large-scale complex backgrounds without paying the expensive rendering cost. It can be applied in computer games to increase visual richness. However, the static panoramic images do not allow the dynamic changing of lighting (known as "dynamic lighting" in the game community). The ability to change lighting allows the game developer to create a dramatic atmosphere. The simplest solution is to render the complete geometric models during the game execution. Unfortunately, unless specially tuned, real-time rendering of complex scenes is usually not possible. It would be ideal if we can "relight" (modify the lighting) the panoramic image without referring to the complex geometry. We have proposed a "relightable" panorama representation that is in between the static panoramic image and geometric model. It allows real-time dynamic lighting without rendering the complex geometry.

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Related Publications

1. " Interactive Relighting of Panoramas",
   T. T. Wong, C. W. Fu and P. A. Heng,
   IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications, Vol. 21, No. 2, March-April 2001, pp. 32-41.

2. " The Plenoptic Illumination Function",
   T. T. Wong, C. W. Fu, P. A. Heng and C. S. Leung,
   IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Vol. 4, No. 3, September 2002, pp. 361-371.
   (This paper received the IEEE Transactions on Multimedia Prize Paper Award 2005.)

3. " Image-based Rendering with Controllable Illumination",
   T. T. Wong, P. A. Heng, S. H. Or and W. Y. Ng,
   in Proceedings of the 8-th Eurographics Workshop on Rendering (Rendering Techniques'97), St. Etienne, France, June 1997, pp. 13-22.