A Practical Extension to Microfacet Theory
for the Modeling of Varying Iridescence

Laurent Belcour Pascal Barla

Motivation


Ⓒ zacktionman

Ⓒ Andreas Kay

Ⓒ BigEmann

Ⓒ Columbia Chemical

Birth of this Research Project

Classical microfacets
Iridescent microfacets
  • It all started with a blog post
  • We wanted to achieve it real-time
    • First guess: "should be easy"
    • Took us 8 months ...

Goniochromism


Ⓒ DipYourCar

Thin-Film Reflectance

Thin-Film Interference: Using Phase

$\eta_{1}$
$\eta_{2}$
$\vec{\eta}_{3}$
$\mathcal{D}$
$\mathcal{D}$
$\mathcal{D}$
$\mathcal{D}$ is called the Optical Path Difference

Thin-Film Interference : Airy Summation

$\eta_{1}$
$\eta_{2}$
$\vec{\eta}_{3}$
outgoing reflectance $ R = |\vec{r}|^2$

with $\vec{r} = \color{red}{\vec{r}_{12}} + \color{blue}{t_{12}} \color{green}{\vec{r}_{23}e^{i \Delta\phi}} \color{orange}{t_{21}} + \cdots$
$$\vec{r} = \color{red}{\vec{r}_{12}} + \color{blue}{t_{12}} \color{green}{\dfrac{\vec{r}_{23}e^{i \Delta\phi}}{1 - \vec{r}_{21}\vec{r}_{23}e^{i \Delta\phi}}} \color{orange}{t_{21}}$$
Analytical form: Airy summation

Naive Implementation

RGB renderer - Naive implementation

Comparison with Spectral Renderer

RGB renderer - Naive implementation 128 spectral samples - Naive implementation

Issue: Spectral Aliasing

  • Using Naive RGB rendering does spectral aliasing
    • Affect goniochromatic materials
    • Can be solved using spectral rendering
  • Spectral rendering is not an option for video-games
  • Our solution: spectral antialiasing
    • Account for spectral integration inside the model
    • Required a novel view on Airy's summation

Spectral Integration with Sensor Sensitivity

$$\int$$
$$\times$$
$$\times$$
$$\mbox{d}\lambda$$
XYZ Color Matching Curves Spectral BRDF Illuminant A

Our Solution: Pre-Integration

  • Under approximations
    • Illuminant constant per sensitivity function
    • Material properties (IORs) constant as well
  • We can approximate the spectral integral in closed-form
$$R \! = \! \int \hspace{500px} \mbox{d}\lambda$$
XYZ times Reflectance

Airy Summation Reordered

  • Start from Airy summation


$$ \vec{r} = \color{red}{\vec{r}_{12}} + \color{blue}{t_{12}} \color{green}{\vec{r}_{23}e^{i \Delta\phi}} \color{orange}{t_{21}} + \cdots $$
  • Work on reflectivity and expand summation


$$R = |\vec{r}|^2 = C_0 + \sum_{m = 1}^{+\infty} C_m \color{blue}{\underbrace{\color{black}{\cos(m \Phi)}}}$$
equal phase difference

Airy Summation Reordered

Airy Summation Reordered

Airy Summation Reordered

Change of Variable

  • Express $R$ with respect to light frequency and not wavelength
$R(\lambda)$ $R(\mu)$ with $\mu \sim \frac{1}{\lambda}$

Fourier Transform of the Reflectance

  • Has discrete form with respect to light frequency
$R(\mu)$ with $\mu \sim \frac{1}{\lambda}$ $\mathcal{F}\left[R\right]$

Integration in Fourier's Space

  • Using Parseval's theorem


$$R_j = \int \hat{R}(\mu) \, \overline{\hat{S}_j(\mu)} \, \mbox{d}\mu$$
Continuous integral Discrete sum
$$\int$$
$$=$$
$$\sum$$

Integration in Fourier's Space

  • Evaluation of the sensitivity's Fourier Transform
    • Can be precomputed as a RGB texture
    • Can be approximated using 4 Gaussians

Real and imaginary table

Fitting sensitivity functions with Gaussians

Integration in Microfacet Models

$$\rho = \frac{D(\mathbf{h}) \; G(\pmb{\omega}_i, \pmb{\omega}_o) \; F(\mathbf{h} \cdot \pmb{\omega}_i)}{4 \; (\pmb{\omega}_i \cdot \mathbf{n}) \; (\pmb{\omega}_o \cdot \mathbf{n})} $$
$$\rho = \frac{D(\mathbf{h}) \; G(\pmb{\omega}_i, \pmb{\omega}_o) \color{red}{R_i(\mathbf{h} \cdot \pmb{\omega}_i)}}{4 \; (\pmb{\omega}_i \cdot \mathbf{n}) \; (\pmb{\omega}_o \cdot \mathbf{n})} $$

Real-Time Rendering Constraints

  • Approximation for IBL and Area-Lights
    • Decorrelate $R_i$ from the IBL/AL pre-integration
    • Evaluate $R_i$ using the mirror direction
    • Oversaturate colors for rough materials

Results: Matlab Validation

  • Dielectric film over a dielectric base
  • Truncating the infinite sum
    • Using up to 3 terms in the series
    • In practice: still good up to 2

XYZ Reflectance w/r to Elevation

Results: Matlab Validation

  • Dielectric film over a dielectric base
  • Truncating the infinite sum
    • Using up to 3 Optical Path Difference ($\mathcal{D}$)
    • In practice: still good up to 2 $\mathcal{D}$
  • Also visible in Chromaticity Space
    • Display curves w/r $[x,y] = \left[\frac{X}{X+Y+Z}, \frac{Y}{X+Y+Z}\right]$
    • Our model faithfully reproduce the GT
  • Comparison with Naive RGB
    • Fails to correctly reproduce color
    • Often goes out of gamut

Chromaticity space x/y

Results: Offline Validation

  • Rendering in Mitsuba
    • Conductor base with $\eta = 1.9$ and $\kappa = 1.5$
    • Film of thickness $h = 550 \mbox{nm}$
Ours (RGB) Ref. (Spectral) [Smits and Meyer 1992]

Results: Real-Time Validation

  • Rendering in BRDF Explorer, Gratin and Unity
    • GLSL implementation provided in supp. mat.
    • Using the Gaussian approximation of XYZ
  • Spatial Variations
    • All parameters can be mapped to textures
    • In practice: better vary only the thickness

Results: Chair

  • Following Maxwell Render team's blog post
    • Start from a classical microfacet model and add iridescence
    • Similar appearance with same inputs
    • Produce a subtle but convincing effect
  • Rendered in Mitsuba

Results: Robot Bust

  • Illustrate some possible appearances
    • Increase thickness gradually
    • Add texture to modulate thickness
  • Rendered in Mitsuba

Results: Beetle

Limitations

  • Varying Index of Refraction (IOR)
    • Using measured data
    • Fail to correctly replicated color for highly varying IORs
Glass base Mercury base Copper base

Summary

  • A extension to microfacet models
    • Adding interference from thin-films
    • Enable a richer set of appearances
  • Our contributions
    • Spectral antialiasing from modified Airy summation
    • Compatible with RGB real-time constraints
    • Compatible with LOD rendering (see paper!)

Thank you for your attention

paper supp. mat. code
available at labs.unity.com