Rendering with Radiance

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Glossary

coefficient

The fraction of light absorbed per unit distance in a participating medium. In SI units, this is specified as a fraction per meter. In Radiance, the absorption is given separately for red, green, and blue.

sampling

The automatic sending of additional samples in cases where the default number of samples is deemed inadequate to achieve the desired accuracy.

The unitless ratio between the scattering coefficient and the extinction coefficient for a participating medium. An albedo of 0 means that the particles do not scatter light. An albedo of 1 means that the particles do not absorb light.

A method that is fully described in a procedure or computer program.

In a Radiance scene description, an alias associates a new identifier (and possibly a new modifier) with a previously defined primitive.

The angle between a vector and the surface horizon, which is equal to 90 degrees minus the polar angle.

(value, calculation)

An ambient value approximates the global average of radiance over all directions and all points of interest in a scene. It is specified in SI units of watts per steradian per square meter for red, green, and blue. The ambient calculation in Radiance replaces this global average with local averages based on indirect irradiance computations. It is more accurately referred to as a diffuse interreflection calculation.

file

A binary file in which indirect irradiance values and their gradients are stored for reuse in other calculations. (See the CD-ROM section on File Formats for details.)

fisheye perspective

A perspective view projection in which the angle from the central view direction is proportional to the distance from the center of the image. (Compare to hemispherical fisheye perspective.)

(walk-through, scene animation)

A walk-through animation is a sequence of images rendered from the same scene description and lighting but from a changing view point, direction, and so on. Scene animation occurs when the actual scene geometry, materials, and/or lighting are changing with each frame.

path

The sequence of view positions and directions in a walk-through animation. Also called the camera path. (See Chapter 9 for details.)

A reflection or transmission distribution function (BRTDF) that varies with rotation about the surface normal. Examples of anisotropic reflection include varnished wood with noticeable grain, brushed metal, and combed hair.

Any technique that reduces sampling artifacts in the final image, particularly "jaggies" caused by abrupt changes in scene geometry. The usual antialiasing method used in Radiance is called supersampling.

A primitive type that provides a rudimentary CSG subtraction operation, removing one solid from another.

transform

A type of transform in which an object is repeated at multiple positions. (See the xform manual page.)

The American Standard for Character Information Interchange-the standard encoding of alphanumeric and control characters as integers between 0 and 127.

The angle about the surface normal relative to some standard direction, such as south.

A cubic polynomial formulation with the potential for C(2) continuity, which provides a visually smooth curve, even though it does not generally pass through any of its control points.

curve

A cubic polynomial formulation whose parameters specify four points near the desired curve shape. In three dimensions, a Bezier surface is specified by sixteen points near the desired surface patch.

representation (B-rep)

A method for representing 3D objects by their surface boundaries, which may be open or closed but do not necessarily have any relationship to one another. (Compare with Constructive Solid Geometry.)

, BRTDF, BSDF

The bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) is a mathematical function that describes the way light is reflected from a point on a locally planar surface. The bidirectional reflectance-transmittance distribution function (BRTDF) is also known as the bidirectional scattering distribution function (BSDF), which describes the way light is transmitted and reflected by a locally planar surface. All are functions of four angles (two incident and two scattered) and return units of 1/steradian.

Computer-aided design or Computer-aided drafting. CAD tools are typically used to interactively create and describe geometric entities.

The SI unit for the total visible light leaving a light source in a certain direction, which may be written out as lumens per steradian.

distribution

The light output distribution for a source, given as a function of direction (two angles in the general case) that returns candelas (in SI units). This is an approximation that assumes the receiver is far from the source.

coordinate system

A system for locating points based on an origin and two or more perpendicular axes passing through it. In Radiance, 3D coordinates are specified via a right-hand Cartesian coordinate system, where the z-axis is in the direction of the thumb of the right hand when the fingers are curled in the direction of the x-axis, and then the y-axis.

The exact color (but not the luminance) of a light source or reflecting surface, given as two values, for example a CIE color (x,y) coordinate. Also sometimes called chrominance.

The Commission International de l'Eclairage, which sets international standards for lighting, daylight, and color measurement and estimation.

color

Several color systems are put forth by the CIE. The most commonly applied system is the CIE 1931 1-degree standard observer, which specifies a perceived color as a tristimulus value, that is, a coordinate triplet indicating the luminance and chromaticity of a stimulus as it is perceived by a 1-degree spot about the foveal center. This may be given equivalently as an XYZ or Yxy value, where x and y are equal to X/( X+Y+Z ) and Y/( X+Y+Z ), respectively. (See the section titled Supplemental Information in Chapter10 for further information.)

standard sky distribution

Sky light is a continually varying and unpredictable quantity, so for analysis and comparison purposes, the CIE recommends a specific set of standard sky distributions that approximate average skies. The most commonly applied are the CIE overcast sky and the CIE clear sky. More recently, the CIE has proposed a third, intermediate sky distribution that better approximates real skies in many countries. (See Chapter 6 for details.)

A program or process that accesses the resources of a server executing locally or on a remote system over a network.

plane

An imaginary plane before which or beyond which nothing is visible. The fore clipping plane (-vo option) determines the closest visible surfaces, and the aft clipping plane (-va option) determines the furthest visible surfaces.

temperature

A black body, whose radiation is solely the result of thermal activity, emits a characteristic spectrum that is determined exactly by its surface temperature. Light sources that approximate such a spectrum, such as incandescent lamps, are often characterized by their correlated color temperature, given in degrees Kelvin.

expansion

In a Radiance scene description, an in-line command that begins with an exclamation point (!) is executed by the system and the output is read in as more scene input, which may also contain in-line commands that are also executed. (This is called a scene hierarchy.)

line

In UNIX, a command line is generally a single line passed to the user's shell for command execution. This typically involves searching for an executable binary or shell script corresponding to the first word in the line, and expanding any file-matching wildcards in the remaining (unquoted) arguments. Other substitutions may also take place, such as variable or history substitution; you should consult the manual page for your particular shell for details. Multiple commands may appear on a single command line, joined either by a semicolon (;) indicating sequential execution, or a pipe character (|) indicating parallel execution with the standard output of the first command passed to the standard input of the second command. Again, particular shells have additional syntax for other interpretations.

complexity

The limiting relationship of computation time to the number of objects. It is often given in the form of "big O" notation, which means "on the order of." For example, an algorithm that has O(N^2) computational complexity has time requirements proportional to the square of the number of objects as N goes to infinity. (See also storage complexity.)

In Radiance, the family of cones includes right-angle truncated cones, cylinders, and rings (disks with optional holes).

solid geometry (CSG)

A method for representing 3D objects as the union, intersection, and subtraction of solid (volumetric) geometry. In contrast to boundary representation, CSG representations are compact and make better use of curved primitives, but place greater requirements on the rendering software.

In lighting, contrast is defined as the difference between the foreground luminance and the background luminance, divided by the background luminance. Contrast is what the human eye relies on to see object detail, and is the most important quantity to reproduce faithfully in any rendering algorithm.

See translator.

Central processing unit. The processor in a computer, usually consisting of registers, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), memory-addressing logic, and (in most cases) a floating-point unit (FPU).

perspective

A viewing projection that maps vertical angles the same way as a linear perspective view, but maps horizontal angles such that horizontal distance from the center of the image is proportional to the angle from the center of view. Also called a panorama, a cylindrical view can cover a full 360 degrees horizontally, which is needed to generate QuickTime VR movies.

file

A Radiance data file describes a scalar function over N-dimensional space as a linearly interpolated table of discrete values. (See the CD-ROM section on File Formats for file syntax and semantics.)

sharing

When multiple rendering or lighting simulation processes are executed simultaneously on the same scene, data sharing permits diffuse interreflection (ambient) values to be used by all processes, avoiding unnecessary duplication of expensive ray-sampling calculations.

factor

The ratio of interior illuminance at the workplane to the exterior illuminance at the ground plane. In the common case of the standard CIE overcast sky distribution, this value is usually less than 1, and is independent of the time of day or time of year, which makes it very useful for comparison purposes. (See Chapter 6 for further details.)

Any algorithm that consistently produces exactly the same result for exactly the same input. (Compare to stochastic and Monte Carlo.)

driver

In rview, a device driver is a program or set of subroutines that translates drawing commands and input requests into the appropriate calls for the current display or window system.

A participating medium that refracts, and may absorb, but does not scatter radiation. Examples include water, wine, and glass. A dielectric is generally characterized by an index of refraction and an absorption or transmission coefficient. In the case of the dielectric primitive used in Radiance, an additional Hartmann constant may be used to approximate the change in the index of refraction with wavelength.

The deviation from linear propagation that occurs when light passes a small object or opening. This phenomenon is significant only when the object or opening is on the order of the wavelength of light, between 380 and 780 nanometers for human vision. For this reason, diffraction effects are ignored in most rendering algorithms, since most modeled geometry is on a much larger scale.

Scattering light in all directions, as occurs in Lambertian reflection, which is the ideal diffuse case. Diffuse transmission means that light is scattered equally in all transmitted directions, that is, in all directions on the opposite side of the surface.

interreflection

The propagation of light by diffuse reflection and transmission in an environment. The Radiance diffuse interreflection calculation computes the diffuse component of light bouncing around a scene. (See Chapter 12 for details.)

component

The illumination arriving at a surface point directly from light sources.

Non-Lambertian reflection or transmission, in which light is scattered in all directions, but favors some directions over others. (See also rough specular.)

The tendency of light to scatter spatially when refracted through a dielectric medium whose index of refraction varies with wavelength. (See also Hartmann constant.)

Any presentation method, such as a graphics monitor, transparency, or print. The independent color channels available on a display are called the display primaries.

The visible light emitted (but not reflected) by a surface, expressed in SI units of lumens per square meter. (Radiant emittance is given in radiometric units of watts per square meter.)

A surface that emits light. See light source.

The total visible light leaving a surface, including reflections, expressed in SI units of lumens per square meter. (Radiant exitance is given in radiometric units of watts per square meter.)

A scaling factor used to map the computed or measured world radiances or luminances to the appropriate range for display, typically 0 to 1. This assumes a linear range for both input and output. (See gamma correction.)

coefficient

The fraction of light lost to scattering and absorption per unit distance in a participating medium. A simple sum of the absorption coefficient and the scattering coefficient. In Radiance, the extinction coefficient is divided into separate red, green, and blue components. (See Chapter 14 for details.)

A window system, including vertical or horizontal blinds, multiple glass panes, and any associated frames or obstructions.

Any program that processes a Radiance picture and produces a modified picture as its output. Programs that take more than one input picture are sometimes included in this category, but should probably be called something more general, such as image processors.

perspective

See angular fisheye perspective and hemispherical fisheye perspective.

file

A Radiance font file describes the polygonal outline of one or more character glyphs, which are used to produce text patterns or mixtures (or by psign to make pictures directly). (See the CD-ROM section on File Formats for file syntax and semantics.)

The high-resolution central region of the retina, spanning about 1 degree of the visual field in humans.

noise

A random function with a frequency spectrum that follows a 1/f profile (where f is the frequency). In Radiance, the fnoise3(x,y,z) function returns fractal noise values between -1 and 1 with an autocorrelation distance of 1, and is defined over all space. (Contrast with Perlin noise. See Chapter 4 for examples.)

octree

A Radiance octree that has been compiled with the oconv -f option, so that it contains a binary representation of all the original scene description information. This type of octree is quicker to load, and easier to transport to other locations because the original scene files and their dependencies need not be copied. (Auxiliary files, such as patterns and textures, will still need to be accessible, however.)

file

A file containing function and variable definitions in the functional language of Radiance. These may be used to define procedural textures, patterns, mixtures, and coordinate mappings for the renderer, or numerous other functions for generators, filters, and other utility programs. (See the CD-ROM section on File Formats for file syntax and semantics.)

language

A language that replaces programming steps with function definitions in no particular order. Usually, recursion replaces looping as the primary construct for iteration, and evaluation sequence is irrelevant because there are no explicit temporary variables or side effects.

correction

Most computer and television monitors exhibit a response function that approximates a simple power law, and the exponent is called the monitor's gamma. Typical displays have gamma values between 1.5 and 3.0; 2.2 is a frequently used standard. Some graphics hardware partially compensates for this response function, bringing the effective system gamma down to 1.8 or 1.4. The correct display of images, whether computer-generated or captured, requires proper correction for the system's gamma response. (See Chapter 5 for details.)

(distribution, surface)

The normal distribution curve for a random variable (i.e., the bell-shaped curve). If the microfacet slope of a surface is normally distributed, it is said to be a Gaussian surface. (See also roughness.)

A generator is a program that produces a geometric description on its output for a specified shape, which may be simple but is more often complex. A few generators, such as gensky, produce nongeometric descriptions or combinations of materials and geometry.

description

A geometric description contains primitives for the cones, polygons, and spheres that make up a scene's boundary representation.

model

This is a general term used for any finite model of a scene's geometry. (The complexity of actual geometry is fundamentally infinite in real environments.)

(discomfort, disability)

The result of bright sources in the field of view. Discomfort glare refers to the pain a viewer experiences in trying to see past bright sources; disability glare refers to the associated loss of visibility.

The glass associated with a fenestration system, which may be single-, double-, or triple-paned with various coatings, films, and thermal barriers.

illumination

The general problem of light propagation in simulated environments, accounting for the many interreflections between scene surfaces.

A bounded 2D graphic typically used to represent some character or other abstraction. A symbol. In a font, a glyph is the name given to one character's geometric description.

plane

The horizontal surface outside a building corresponding to the approximate ground level.

constant

A parameter that approximates the change in the index of refraction of a particular dielectric material as a function of wavelength. Usually given in units of nanometers (10-9 meters), this constant is divided by the wavelength and added to a base index of refraction.

fisheye perspective

A viewing projection in which the distance from the center of the image is proportional to the cosine of the angle from the central view direction. (Compare to angular fisheye perspective.)

reflectance

The total light reflected by a surface for a given direction of parallel incident radiation.

curve

A cubic polynomial formulation whose parameters specify the starting point, ending point, starting tangent vector, and ending tangent vector. In three dimensions, a hermite surface is defined by the four corners with two tangent vectors plus one curl vector at each vertex.

parameter

The main parameter in a formula used to approximate the anisotropic scattering of a participating medium, where a value of 0 indicates perfectly isotropic scattering, and a value approaching 1 indicates a strongly forward-scattering medium. (See Chapter 14 for formula and details.)

A tree of objects, such as a scene description file that loads in other scene files that load other files in turn via in-line commands. Hierarchy allows one to animate a finger attached to a hand attached to an arm attached to a torso, for example.

luminaire data

Candlepower distribution data together with other miscellaneous information in a standard ASCII format proposed by the IESNA [IES91].

The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, a professional organization that sets standard practices for lighting design in the U.S. and Canada.

The basic secondary light source type in Radiance. An illum may also be called an impostor, since it is not really an emitter, but plays as one in the direct calculation. (See Chapter 13 for details.)

The integrated visible light arriving at a surface, expressed in SI units of lumens per square meter, or lux. (Compare to irradiance.)

meter

A photometric device for measuring illuminance.

plane

An imaginary plane on which a picture is projected. The radiances arriving at this imaginary surface are written into a picture as an array of color values.

processing

Operations on images, such as scaling, inversion, summation, warping, and so on. (See filter.)

synthesis

The creation of a color or black-and-white image from a mathematical description of a scene. More commonly called rendering.

A surface with simplified properties that stands in for a more complete description in the direct component calculation as an efficiency measure. Also called an illum in Radiance. (See Chapter 13 for details.)

command

A command, embedded in a Radiance scene description, which is preceded by an initial exclamation point (!). The end of the command is indicated by a new-line character, but if the new-line character is preceded by a backslash (\), then the command continues on the next line. In-line commands may not read from their standard input, and their standard output must contain only valid Radiance scene description primitives, aliases, comments, and other in-line commands.

of refraction

The ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in a particular participating medium. This value determines how light is refracted (bent) as it passes from one medium to another. The index of refraction of air is very close to 1, whereas the index of refraction of glass is about 1.52, meaning that light travels over 1.5 times faster through air than it does through glass.

component

The component of light arriving at a surface indirectly via bounces off other, nonemitting surfaces. This may include specular and diffuse reflections. (See also indirect irradiance and diffuse interreflection.)

irradiance

A quantity equal to the integrated radiation arriving at a surface point excluding light sources that are counted as part of the direct component. It is expressed in SI units of watts per steradian per square meter.

header

A short section of ASCII text at the beginning of a Radiance binary format file, which is terminated by an empty line (i.e., two successive new-line characters). This header usually begins with #?RADIANCE and contains the commands that generated the file, along with any pertinent variables indicating the software version, view, exposure, format, and so on. This information may be conveniently read with the getinfo command.

A single example of an object, which may be repeated many times in many places in a scene. The Radiance instance primitive is used to replicate scene information that is compiled in a Radiance octree.

point

The 3D point at which a ray intersects a surface. In cases where multiple ray intersections are possible, the first is the one that is used. (See ray tracing.)

The integrated radiation arriving at a surface at all wavelengths, expressed in SI units of watts per square meter. In Radiance, only visible radiation is considered, but units of radiance and irradiance are still used; they are divided into separate components for the red, green, and blue spectral ranges. (Compare to illuminance.)

gradient

The directional derivative of irradiance at a surface point. In Radiance, this quantity is estimated for changes in indirect irradiance as a function of surface rotation and translation, and this is used to improve the accuracy of interpolated indirect irradiance values.

contour

A line corresponding to equal illuminance values on a surface.

Equal in all directions. Isotropic scattering occurs when light is scattered equally over 4pi steradians. Isotropic reflection, in contrast, usually refers to a surface that may have a directional preference, but one that does not depend on the azimuth of the incident vector.

sampling

A stochastic process in which values are sampled uniformly over a rectilinear subspace. For example, a ray may be sampled at a random location on a square pixel by choosing random, independent x and y offsets.

Ideal diffuse reflection, in which the luminance (or radiance) reradiated by a surface is identical in all directions. Very few surfaces exhibit this behavior, but some come close and many have a component that is approximately Lambertian, which can be used to accelerate interreflection calculations.

source

A surface that originates light in a scene. In Radiance, light sources are identified by their material type and geometry. In some cases, virtual light sources are created when reflecting geometry is present in a scene, and these sources are used to direct rays back to the original light sources. (See Chapter 11 for details.)

visualization

The creation of images, plots, and graphics for the purpose of understanding lighting in a design space. (See physically based rendering.)

illumination

The interaction of light with a surface, disregarding the process by which light arrives at the surface.

A photometric unit related to the photopic stimulus of the human fovea. It is computed by convolving the photopic response function with the spectral power distribution function. Normalization is defined so that the conversion from watts to lumens is 1/683 at the peak sensitivity wavelength of 555 nanometers. (See Chapter10 for details.)

A light fixture, including any and all lamps, ballasts, reflectors, lenses, baffles, and so on.

The visible light passing through a point in a certain direction, expressed in SI units of lumens per steradian (candelas) per square meter, or nits. (Compare to radiance.)

meter

A photometric device for measuring luminance.

flux

The visible light passing through an area, measured in SI units of lux.

Shorthand for lumens per square meter. (See illuminance.)

The substance from which an object is made. In the context of Radiance, the characteristics of a surface that describe its interaction with light.

description

A Radiance scene description fragment that defines a particular material's properties, including its type, parameters, and any modifiers such as textures, patterns, and mixtures.

overhead

The memory (RAM) required for a particular object or operation above what is already in use by a process.

sharing

On a multiprocessing system, memory sharing means that more than one processor is accessing the same RAM in parallel, thereby avoiding duplicate memory requirements.

See tessellated surface.

An intermediate, device-independent binary file that contains 2D vector graphics, used for plotting to various supported output devices. (See the metafile(5) manual page on the CD-ROM.)

direction

A reflected direction that lies in the plane defined by the incident vector and the surface normal, at an equal but opposite angle to the incident direction.

A Radiance primitive type for participating media.

A category of Radiance primitives that provides for mixing two different patterns, textures, materials, or mixtures.

A Radiance primitive whose purpose is to modify another Radiance primitive. Specifically, any primitive that does not specify geometry may be used to modify any other primitive.

Carlo

Random (i.e., stochastic) sampling in the context of an integration or averaging problem. Monte Carlo inversion is the process of determining the appropriate random variable for a desired weighting function so that the final sample weights are equal. In the absence of better information or techniques, this results in the most efficient sampling pattern.

The application of multiple processors (CPUs) to the same problem, running in parallel. Ideally, this would result in a linear speedup proportional to the number of processors, but in general, the improvement is somewhat less than this because of overhead, communication delays, and data access contention.

Straight down, usually used for reference in the output of a downward-facing luminaire.

The usual unit of measurement for the wavelength of visible radiation, equal to 10-9 meters. Often abbreviated as nm.

A collection of computers connected by wires, optical cables, and/or microwaves. Generally, a small number of machines are connected together on a local area network at a single site, which talks via a gateway machine to the global network (i.e., the Internet).

file system (NFS)

A network file access protocol that allows remote disks to appear and act as local disks on a system. File servers provide disk access to file clients.

lock manager

A service that guarantees file consistency when the same file is accessed by multiple processes over a network. This is a standard part of the network file system on most UNIX implementations, but some lock managers do not work efficiently and others do not even operate correctly. The lock manager is a critical part of the parallel processing algorithms in Radiance. (See Chapter15 for details.)

Shorthand for candelas per square meter. (See luminance.)

vector

A unit vector. (See surface normal.)

Acronym for Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline, a popular class of rational cubic patches used widely for the geometric modeling of smooth, curved surfaces.

A data structure that subdivides space recursively into eight cubes, each of which may be subdivided into eight subcubes, and so on. An octree file is a special Radiance binary format that contains this data structure, created by oconv to speed ray intersection tests on the scene. A frozen octree file contains all of the relevant scene information as well, providing for quick loading and easy portability. (See the CD-ROM section on File Formats for details.)

calculation

An initial low-resolution pass over an image to collect indirect irradiance values into an ambient file for later high-resolution rendering. This generally improves the quality of the final results at a modest expense.

See cylindrical perspective.

projection

A view type in which the distance from the center of the image is proportional to the distance from the ray starting at the view point and continuing in the view direction. Since all imaging rays are parallel, this projection does not exhibit the foreshortening of a normal perspective view.

rendering

The simultaneous rendering of a single picture or animated sequence on multiple processors (CPUs). (See multiprocessing.)

A right angle, rectangular prism. That is, a closed, convex, six-sided geometric solid, all of whose faces are rectangles.

surface

A 3D surface described by a vector function of two independent variables, each typically running from 0 to 1.

medium

A solid, liquid, gas, or colloid that affects the transport of light through its volume. Examples include glass, water, wine, milk, fog, and smoke. Clear air is also a participating medium, but one that has an effect only over great distances.

A variation in surface color, which can be described in Radiance as a procedure, a picture or tabulated data.

The partial shadow between the unshadowed region and the umbra, or fully shadowed region.

noise

A random function with a strong fundamental frequency and few harmonics, first introduced by Ken Perlin [Per85]. In Radiance, the noise3(x,y,z) function returns values between -1 and 1 with an autocorrelation distance of 1, and is defined over all space. (Contrast with fractal noise. See Chapter 4 for examples.)

projection

See linear perspective projection, angular fisheye perspective, cylindrical perspective, and hemispherical fisheye perspective.

shading

A simple model for rough specular reflection (also known as directional-diffuse), computed by raising the cosine of the angle between the half-vector and the surface normal to a power. (The half-vector bisects the incident and reflected directions.)

smoothing

The interpolation of surface normals on a tessellated surface to simulate the appearance of a smoothly curved object during rendering.

A device for measuring visible radiation. Typically divided into two categories: illuminance meters and luminance meters.

A quantity related to the human photopic response to visible radiation. Examples of photometric units are lumens and candelas. Examples of photometric quantities are luminance and illuminance.

data

The measured candlepower distribution of a luminaire.

The measurement of visible radiation.

response

The average spectral sensitivity of the human cone system to radiation. Sensitivity begins near the far red wavelength of 780 nanometers, growing gradually to peak at about 555 nanometers, then sloping gradually down into the ultraviolet at 350 nanometers. The standard photopic response function is written as v(l). (See the section titled Supplemental Information at the end of Chapter 10 for a plot of this function.)

rendering

A term used to describe rendering that appears as real as a photograph.

based rendering

A rendering technique that adheres to the physics of light transport, producing images that are accurate predictions of the appearance of a design space.

file

A Radiance floating-point color image, which usually contains physical radiance values useful for lighting analysis. (See the CD-ROM section on File Formats for details.)

In UNIX, a "first-in, first-out" (FIFO) interprocess communication channel, typically used to pass the standard output of one command into the standard input of another command running simultaneously. Sometimes, processes may open their own pipes to other commands they start.

Multiple UNIX commands connected together via pipes.

Short for picture element. The smallest measured, calculated, or displayed point in an image.

Lying in a plane. Completely flat.

angle

The angle between the surface normal and the given vector direction. (Compate to altitude.)

An N-sided planar surface with a finite area. A convex polygon has no interior angles greater than 180 degrees.

An element in a Radiance scene description, which consists of a modifier, type, identifier, and zero or more parameters. (See the Radiance reference manual on the CD-ROM for syntax and semantics.)

A polygon extruded into the third dimension. If the extrusion vector parallels the surface normal, then the resulting solid is called a right prism. (See the genprism manual page for details.)

A running program on a system.

A computational unit. See CPU.

hemisphere

A half-sphere, projected in parallel onto the splitting plane along the surface normal such that each differential area corresponds to the original area times the cosine of the polar angle. A uniform sampling of luminance over the projected hemisphere times p (the area of the unit circule) equals illuminance. The same relation holds for radiance and irradiance.

The radiation passing through a point in a specific direction, expressed in SI units of watts per steradian per square meter. In the Radiance system, only visible radiation is considered, but units of radiance and irradiance are still used, which are divided into separate components for the red, green, and blue spectral ranges. (Compare to luminance.)

A quantity related to radiation, usually measured in terms of power or power/wavelength. Examples of radiometric units are watts and watts/steradian. Exapmples of radiometric quantities are radiance and irradiance.

A physical quantity equal to the radiant exitance of a Lambertian surface. (See also radiosity method.)

method

A formulation of the global illumination problem based on the solution of radiosity for a finite number of points in a 3D scene description. Also called finite element flux transfer.

Random access memory, usually referred to simply as memory.

tracing

A method based on following one-dimensional rays, where each ray is defined by an origin point and a vector direction. In a rendering algorithm, each ray is followed until it intersects a visible surface, where new rays may be spawned in a recursive process. In light-forwards ray tracing, light is followed from the light sources to the final measurement areas. In light-backwards ray tracing (as in Radiance), each view ray is traced from the point of measurement to the contributing light sources. In bidirectional ray tracing, light is traced both from the measurement points and from the light sources, meeting somewhere in between.

A function that calls a simpler version of itself to arrive at a solution. For example, the factorial function (n!) can be defined recursively as (n(n-1)!), where (0!) is defined as equal to1. If a function calls another function that calls back the original function again, it is called mutual recursion; most ray-tracing programs fall into this general category.