Rendering diffraction Phenomena on rough surfaces in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Wave-optical phenomena, such as diffraction, significantly impact the visual appearance of surfaces. Despite their importance, wave-optical reflection models are rare and computationally expensive. Recently, we presented a real-time model that accounts for diffraction-induced color shifts and speckle. Given that diffraction phenomena are highly dependent on illumination and viewing directions, as well as stereoscopic vision, we developed a VR demo to evaluate the new model. This demo shows the substantial impact of diffraction on the appearance of rough surfaces, particularly in stereoscopic viewing.