A GPU favor representation method for plenoptic-illumination function based on an efficient spherical partition scheme

In image-based relighting (IBR), a set of reference images is pre-captured under various light directions. These reference images represent the appearance of a scene with an adjustable illumination. This paper describes a graphics process unit (GPU) favor relighting scheme for IBR. The scheme consists of two levels. In the first level, the reference images are converted into a number of lightmaps (floating point images) based on the proposing HEALPIX discrete cosine transform (HDCT). In the second level, the lightmaps are compressed with a GPU favor compression method. Novel images with complicated lighting conditions can be directly generated from those compressed lightmaps. The GPU accelerated relighting methods for the directional source and the point source are discussed. Compared with the spherical harmonic scheme and the radial basis function scheme, the proposed HDCT scheme offers the similar rendering speed and much better rendering quality.