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Is all spectral rendering handled as simulation? Are there technique more tailored to 'consumer' rendering, such as for real-time or even just 'realistic looking without solving full physical equations'?

I'd like to understand how we handle the rendering of spectral effects. It seems like a photon needs to be described as a range of wavelengths, and incidence with a surface either

  • replaces the original, and resolves multiple new photons across the spectral function, each with their own new vector
  • maintains the original (or marginally modified) photon, given a threshold

I would prefer to be pointed in the direction of existing work, but appreciate any coloring of this topic.

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  • $\begingroup$ I feel like this question is way too broad as it stands. Whole books have been written on the subject. Perhaps you could narrow it down to a specific question that's not covered by existing resources? $\endgroup$
    – Dan Hulme
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 15:20
  • $\begingroup$ I can see this being answered along the lines of "There are hundreds of ways, each of which falls into one of the following N broad categories. If you want to know specific detail about one of these categories you can ask a new question." $\endgroup$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 16:17

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The most common way I saw is to have photons of several different wavelengths. One then renders with each wavelength and blends the results into the final image.

"Existing work": Psychopath Renderer and The Secret Life of Photons.

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One hacky method I've seen in real time raytracers / ray marching is to cast a ray per color channel (rgb) and do things Iike have different refraction indices per color channel.

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  • $\begingroup$ Interesting. Could you point us to any sources, examples or results of this approach? $\endgroup$
    – David Kuri
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 9:11
  • $\begingroup$ I'm on my phone so can't take a screenshot, but this shadertoy uses the method and looks pretty decent: shadertoy.com/view/ltfXDM $\endgroup$
    – Alan Wolfe
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 12:30
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    $\begingroup$ POV-Ray is an open-source ray-tracer that uses a similar method to simulate dispersion. It's not a ray per channel: you can configure how many rays are used, spread equally across the spectrum. $\endgroup$
    – Dan Hulme
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 15:19

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