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OpenGL Development Cookbook

You're reading from   OpenGL Development Cookbook OpenGL brings an added dimension to your graphics by utilizing the remarkable power of modern GPUs. This straight-talking cookbook is perfect for intermediate C++ programmers who want to exploit the full potential of OpenGL.

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Product type Paperback
Published in Jun 2013
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781849695046
Length 326 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Muhammad Mobeen Movania Muhammad Mobeen Movania
Author Profile Icon Muhammad Mobeen Movania
Muhammad Mobeen Movania
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Toc

Table of Contents (10) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Introduction to Modern OpenGL FREE CHAPTER 2. 3D Viewing and Object Picking 3. Offscreen Rendering and Environment Mapping 4. Lights and Shadows 5. Mesh Model Formats and Particle Systems 6. GPU-based Alpha Blending and Global Illumination 7. GPU-based Volume Rendering Techniques 8. Skeletal and Physically-based Simulation on the GPU Index

Implementing global illumination using spherical harmonics lighting


In this recipe, we will learn about implementing simple global illumination using spherical harmonics. Spherical harmonics is a class of methods that enable approximation of functions as a product of a set of coefficients with a set of basis functions. Rather than calculating the lighting contribution by evaluating the bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF), this method uses special HDR/RGBE images that store the lighting information. The only attribute required for this method is the per-vertex normal. These are multiplied with the spherical harmonics coefficients that are extracted from the HDR/RGBE images.

The RGBE image format was invented by Greg Ward. These images store three bytes for the RGB value (that is, the red, green, and blue channel) and an additional byte which stores a shared exponent. This enables these files to have an extended range and precision of floating point values. For details...

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