Light propagation visualization as a tool for 3D scene analysis in lighting design

This paper is devoted to a designer tool, which is an extension of particle tracing algorithm for analysis of scenes, artifacts, image ghosts, and ray-tracing mechanism itself. The global illumination problem here is considered at the level of light propagation visualization, which takes into account all cognitive benefits of visual representation. Physically accurate particle tracers randomly generate thousands of rays per second to simulate light propagation in a scene considering light as consisting of photons with a constant energy. The proposed tool utilizes and filters the information of how light photons propagate in the scene. Several examples in the paper demonstrate a practical value of obtained photon tracks for scene analysis. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.