A Physically Based Renderer: Course Project of UCSD CSE 168

For the course project for ‘UCSD CSE 168 Computer Graphics II: Rendering’, we constructed a physically-based renderer.

Detailed feature overviews and conceptual breakdowns can be found in our assignment specification:

• Homework 1: Ray Tracing
• Homework 2: Triangles and acceleration structures
• Homework 3: Textures, shading normals, Fresnel, and area lights
• Homework 4: Indirect lighting, BRDFs, and Multiple Importance Sampling

Features:

• Parses a scene in Mitsuba XML file format.
• Path Tracing
• Area Light (Monte Carlo Integration)
• Multiple Importance Sampling (we adopted the one-sample variant of MIS: instead of deterministically shooting rays for both lights and BRDFs and weighing them, we randomly choose one and combine the distribution)
• Implements a BVH acceleration structure.
• Support for spheres and triangle meshes.
• UV Texture Mapping
• Support for diffuse, mirror, plastic materials and Phong, Blinn-Phong, Blinn Phong microfacet BRDF
• Anti-aliasing, Russian Roulette termination.
• Exports the scene into a EXR file.

Build

1. Clone the repository.
2. Navigate to the 'build' directory.
3. Use CMake to build (this instruction assumes you're on a Unix-like system).
4. Use the 'make' command to compile the code. Note: This project was tested on an M1 MacBook Air.

git clone https://github.com/jayHuggie/PBR
cd PBR/build
cmake ..
make

Running the Code

After compiling, use the command:

./torrey -hw 4_3 ../scenes/veach_mi/mi.xml

• Regarding the '-hw' argument: It accepts values from 1_1 to 4_3, representing different functions detailed in the assignment documents. For the most comprehensive experience, use '-hw 4_3'.
  
• "../scenes/veach_mi/mi.xml" after -hw 4_3 is just an example. Additional scenes can also be rendered. The xml file can be located in various folders within the ‘scenes’ folder like:

./torrey -hw 4_3 ..scenes/cbox/cbox.xml

• The resolution and sample size can be adjusted by changing the values of the xml files.
• The rendered image can be found in the 'build' folder under the name 'hw_4_3.exr'!

More sample images!

Multiple Importance Sampling Test by Eric Veach

Head

Phong Spheres in Cornell Box

Textured Teapot with Blinn Phong Surface

Sponza