Teaser aniso IBL

Our latest research focuses on rendering anisotropic specular appearances, such as the reflections seen on materials like brushed stainless steel, fur, and scratched plastics. The traditional method - the bent normal technique - is highly efficient but does not yield realistic renderings. We are thrilled to introduce a novel image-based lighting method that enhances realism while maintaining efficiency.

This work is a joint effort with my colleague Cédric Zanni and my master student Giovanni Cocco from the University of Milan, who completed his internship at Inria Nancy.

We’re excited to announce that this research is published in Computer Graphics Forum (DOI) and was presented at Pacific Graphics 2024!

Key highlights of our approach:

  • Increased Realism
  • Efficient Computation: A 50% increase in computation time compared to the standard bent normal technique while utilizing the same high dynamic range (HDR) pre-integrated environment image.
  • Drop-in Replacement for the Bent Normal Technique
  • Analytical Innovations: We developed a formula to identify key points on the BRDF confidence region boundary, which aids in determining the BRDF’s major axis and width.

Through extensive comparisons with both the bent normal technique and ground truth using the GGX specular BRDF, our method demonstrates significant improvements in quality.

This research opens new doors for realistic real-time rendering in various applications, from gaming to virtual reality. Check out the full study to explore the details of our findings!

👉 Project page: https://xavierchermain.github.io/publications/aniso-ibl