Real-time Rendering of Heterogeneous Translucent Objects with Arbitrary Shapes

We present a real‐time algorithm for rendering translucent objects of arbitrary shapes. We approximate the scattering of light inside the objects using the diffusion equation, which we solve on‐the‐fly using the GPU. Our algorithm is general enough to handle arbitrary geometry, heterogeneous materials, deformable objects and modifications of lighting, all in real‐time. In a pre‐processing step, we discretize the object into a regular 4‐connected structure (QuadGraph). Due to its regular connectivity, this structure is easily packed into a texture and stored on the GPU. At runtime, we use the QuadGraph stored on the GPU to solve the diffusion equation, in real‐time, taking into account the varying input conditions: Incoming light, object material and geometry. We handle deformable objects, provided the deformation does not change the topological structure of the objects.