Physically Based Rendering : From Theory to Implementation (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3D Technology) (The Interactive 3d Technology Series)
bime.com Product Guide
Home / Books / Physically Based Rendering : From Theory to Implementation (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3D Technology) (The Interactive 3d Technology Series)
"Computer graphics, and rendering in particular, is full of beautiful theory. The theory covers physical concepts, such as light fields and the interaction of light with different materials, and mathematical concepts, such as integral equations and Monte Carlo integration. The great thing about computers is that they allow us to build rendering systems based on the best theory. This book turns the theory of image-making into a practical method for creating images." -from the foreword by Pat Hanrahan, Canon USA Professor, Stanford University From movies to video games, computer-rendered images are pervasive today. Physically Based Rendering introduces the concepts and theory of photorealistic rendering hand in hand with the source code for a sophisticated renderer. By coupling the discussion of rendering algorithms with their implementations, Matt Pharr and Greg Humphreys are able to reveal many of the details and subtleties of these algorithms. But this book goes further; it also describes the design strategies involved with building real systems-there is much more to writing a good renderer than stringing together a set of fast algorithms. For example, techniques for high-quality antialiasing must be considered from the start, as they have implications throughout the system. The rendering system described in this book is itself highly readable, written in a style called literate programming that mixes text describing the system with the code that implements it. Literate programming gives a gentle introduction to working with programs of this size. This lucid pairing of text and code offers the most complete and in-depth book available for understanding, designing, and building physically realistic rendering systems. * Winner of an Honorable Mention in the Computer and Information Science category from The Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division (PSP) of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) * Finalist for the 15th Annual Jolt Awards * Companion CD-ROM includes the source code for a complete rendering system for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux-with many of the features found in high-quality commercial systems. * The system's plug-in architecture makes its basic structure transparent and allows for new features to be added easily. * The rendering system implements a number of newer or difficult-to-implement algorithms and techniques, including subdivision surfaces, Monte Carlo light transport, and volumetric scattering.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
indispensible:
I do ray tracing and GI for a living. When I got started on my ray tracer I was struggling with several basic issues. Even though I tried to locate all the published material on those subject there was still significant gaps. Issues like 'how to shot photons', what about all these 'cosines'. How do you actually implement a kd-tree. I read Shirley's, Jansen's, Glassner's and Advanced Global Illumination and a lot of the older Siggraph papers. PBRT came out just in time to rescue me. It contains the only... more info
Excellent resource - thorough and well-written:
I cannot praise this book more than the others already have. The book is about producing high-quality images using raytracing. It basically walks you through the creation of a fully-functional raytracer, discussing all the different algorithms and techniques that are needed along the way. It's written in the context of their particular implementation of a working raytracer, using the fweb programming/documentation system, where basically the program source and the documentation are written as one... more info
Simply the best on modern rendering algorithms and code:
This book mixes detailed algorithm descriptions with actual code in a book that never loses sight of the "big picture" of physically based ray tracing and image synthesis. Although it is very well written and is not a dry academic book at all, it would help if the reader is already familiar with basic computer graphic techniques, linear algebra, calculus, and optics in order to get the most out of this book. It was never meant to be a replacement for Foley & Van Dam's classic book on computer graphics,... more info
Six stars out of five:
Although it is not possible here, I am fairly sure this book deserves such rating. This is truly remarkable work and is likely to become a classic text in the field of computer graphics. It is not a survey-type book, instead of trying to describe every possible method out there, the authors have concentrated on a few selected techniques, that are not only good (modern, fast, easy to implement, etc.), but also have some pedagogical merits and can serve as a gentle introduction to the world of ray... more info
