Efficient rendering of shadowcasting for multiple dynamic point light sources

Abstract

Rendering is the process of synthesising an image from a set of models by drawing and colouring them. The inclusion of shadows in this image, although significantly contributing towards the computational costs of rendering, greatly increases visual quality and immersion. This final year project aims to produce a lights prioritisation and clustering technique based on the Barnes-Hut n-body algorithm utilised in classical mechanics which determines and renders shadows that are deemed to be mostly relevant from an observers point of view according to a given computational budget. The main advantage that this technique provides is a 1:5 increase in framerate whilst keeping the scene's quality consistent. The evaluation of this technique is carried out on a number of different scenes, where the performance and visual identicalness of each scene is quanti ed and compared. These same scenes are run with and without the use of the technique as well as with the Graphics Engine's inbuilt optimisations.