Participating media baking

A method, comprising:

• identifying a scene to be rendered;
• creating a plurality of light scattering tables within the scene;
• performing a computation of light extinction and light in-scattering within participating media of the scene, utilizing the plurality of light scattering tables;
• and
• during a ray tracing of the scene:
• approximating spatially heterogeneous media of the scene as spatially homogeneous media of the scene by performing a volume intersection for each light ray associated with the spatially heterogeneous media of the scene to determine a homogeneous scattering coefficient for the light ray, and
• applying to the spatially heterogeneous media of the scene one of the plurality of light scattering tables, where each of the plurality of light scattering tables corresponds to a single homogeneous scattering coefficient.

A system, comprising:

• a processor for:
• identifying a scene to be rendered;
• creating a plurality of light scattering tables within the scene;
• performing a computation of light extinction and light in-scattering within participating media of the scene, utilizing the plurality of light scattering tables;
• and
• during a ray tracing of the scene:
• approximating spatially heterogeneous media of the scene as spatially homogeneous media of the scene by performing a volume intersection for each light ray associated with the spatially heterogeneous media of the scene to determine a homogeneous scattering coefficient for the light ray, and
• applying to the spatially heterogeneous media of the scene one of the plurality of light scattering tables, where each of the plurality of light scattering tables corresponds to a single homogeneous scattering coefficient.