A Unified Approach to Prefiltered Environment Maps

Abstract

Different methods for prefiltered environment maps have been proposed, each of which has different advantages and disadvantages. We present a general notation for prefiltered environment maps, which will be used to classify and compare the existing methods. Based on that knowledge we develop three new algorithms: 1. A fast hierarchical prefiltering method that can be utilized for all previously proposed prefiltered environment maps. 2. A technique for hardware-accelerated prefiltering of environment maps that achieves interactive rates even on low-end workstations. 3. Anisotropic environment maps using the Banks model.