A field guide to brdf models.

Technical report PCG-04-01, Program of Computer Graphics, Cornell University, Jan 2004.

We present a principled approach to selecting a surface reflectance model and setting its parameters. The approach is based on fundamental physical principles, comparisons between different models, and practical insight into the characteristics of real surfaces. Four models of surface reflectance were evaluated by comparing them with physical measurements on five different sample surfaces. Conclusions are drawn about which of the models are best to represent different surfaces, since no one model was a clear winner in all cases. Principles and visual checks are derived to help practitioners model a variety of surfaces with good accuracy.

This paper is available as a PDF file WLT04b.pdf (1.0M).