Efficient Physically-Based Perceptual Rendering of Participating Media

To significantly reduce physically-based rendering times for participating media, we propose a novel perceptual strategy based on the combination of a saliency map with our new physically-based extinction map (X-map), which stores in image-space the exponential decay of light in the medium. This combination is then used to guide a selective rendering of the scene, with more accurate estimates in the most perceptually important parts of the scene, without visible degradation. The novelties of this work can then be summarized as a) the introduction of the X-map concept and b) its combination with a saliency map to guide a perception-based renderer for inhomogeneous participating media. Results show a decrease of almost 60% in rendering times for our test scene.