A Volumetric Approach to Predictive Rendering of Fabrics

Abstract Efficient physically accurate modeling and rendering of woven cloth at a yarn level is an inherently complicated task due to the underlying geometrical and optical complexity. In this paper, a novel and general approach to physically accurate cloth rendering is presented. By using a statistical volumetric model approximating the distribution of yarn fibers, a prohibitively costly explicit geometrical representation is avoided. As a result, accurate rendering of even large pieces of fabrics containing orders of magnitudes more fibers becomes practical without sacrifying much generality compared to fiber‐based techniques. By employing the concept of local visibility and introducing the effective fiber density, limitations of existing volumetric approaches regarding self‐shadowing and fiber density estimation are greatly reduced.