Interactive cloud-based global illumination for shared virtual environments

Abstract

Real-time high-fidelity rendering requires the use of expensive high-end hardware, even when rendering moderately complex scenes. Interactive streaming services and cloud gaming have somewhat mitigated the problem at the cost of response lag. In this paper we present ReGGI (Regular Grid Global Illumination), a cloud-based distributed rendering pipeline for shared virtual environments that eliminates response lag and is capable of interactive global illumination on a wide gamut of client devices. Results show that ReGGI is scalable, has low bandwidth requirements and produces images of comparable quality to instant radiosity.