An Interactive 3D Exhibition System with Global Illumination for Digital Museum

Interactive exhibition of three-dimensional models in digital museums can significantly impact learning and understanding. Current 3D exhibition systems commonly provide viewers with local illumination effects. Interactive exhibition with high realistic rendering quality is becoming a necessity. In order to enhance the sense of reality and immersion, we develop a 3D exhibition system for interactively displaying relic models with global illumination effects. In our system, the precomputed radiance transfer(PRT) method is used for solution to the global illumination effects including diffuse reflection, shadows and inter-reflections. In addition to diffuse reflections, we also extend standard PRT method by blending previously generated textures for heterogeneously colored surfaces. Our system has applied to several cultural relics, of which the results are presented in this paper.