p3d_pbrt-scenes

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Overview

This repository includes a number of example scenes and data for use with the pbrt-v3 renderer, which corresponds to the system described in the third edition of Physically Based Rendering, by Matt Pharr, Wenzel Jakob, and Greg Humphreys. (See also the pbrt website.)

We hope that this data will be useful to users of pbrt, developers making changes to the system, and researchers in rendering. To our knowledge, all of these scenes and data can be used fairly freely. Some data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license; see details in Section [Overview of Scenes] of this document.

For more information about how to convert scenes to pbrt's format, see the pbrt User's Guide.

Data Sets

In addition to example scenes, there is some useful data for use with the system.

• bsdfs/: this directory includes a variety of bidirectional scattering distribution functions (BSDFs) for use with the FourierMaterial. See, for example, the coffee-splash scene for use of such a BSDF in a scene.

  • New versions of BSDFs for use with FourierMaterial can be generated with layerlab.

• lenses/: lens description files for a handful of real-world lens systems, for use with the RealisticCamera. See the scenes villa/villa-photons.pbrt and sanmiguel/f6-17.pbrt for examples of their use.

• spds/: measured spectral power distributions for a variety of standard illuminants, light sources, metals, and the squares of the Macbeth color checker.

Scenes

A variety of scenes are available, ranging from simple ones that show off an individual feature of the system, to more interesting ones that demonstrate complex lighting effects in scenes with detailed geometry and realistic reflection models.

Scene files for many of the rendered figures in the book are included here; for example, dragon/f11-13.pbrt corresponds to Figure 11.13 in the third edition of the book.

Directory Organization

We've tried to organize all of the scene directories in a consistent manner; each scene directory is self-contained, containing all of the geometry, textures, and additional data needed to render the scene.

With a few exceptions, each *.pbrt file in a scene directory represents a separate variant of the scene to be rendered (possibly with different light source configurations, different camera positions, etc.) Some scenes have geometry.pbrt, lights-*.pbrt and materials.pbrt files that collect common geometry and material definitions across these variants. Thus, you should be able to just run pbrt scene-name.pbrt for any of the remaining *.pbrt files to render the corresponding scene.

Complex triangle meshes and other complex geometry is stored in the geometry/ directories and texture maps are all in the respective textures/ directories. (Similarly, any SPDs, realistic camera lenses, or BSDF files are stored in corresponding sub-directories.)

The images/ directory (which has a structure that parallels that of the scene directories) has EXR and PNG files corresponding to the final output from rendering each corresponding scene. All PNGs were generated using the imgtool program from the pbrt-v3 distribution; many had a scale factor applied with the --scale command-line option, and a number include a bit of bloom to improve visual realism (via the --bloomlevel and related command-line options.) Sometimes the corresponding *.pbrt file has a comment under the Film directive with the command line options that were used for imgtool.

A Note about Clamped Sample Values

Some of these scenes have very difficult-to-sample light transport paths that in turn cause high variance, which manifests itself as scattered very bright pixels in images (often called "fireflies"). (For example, scenes with bumpy specular surfaces that are illuminated by realistic sky environment maps suffer from this issue when a path intersects the specular surface and is then scattered such that it happens to intersect the sun.)

There is an option for pbrt's Film implementation that allows the user to specify a maximum value for the luminance of any sample added to the film; if enabled, any sample with a larger luminance has its luminance scaled down so that it is equal to the maximum. In turn, the impact of fireflies in images can be greatly reduced.

We have used this option for a number of challenging scenes in the following. As such, bias has been introduced into the the images that pbrt generates for those scenes. We highlight this issue for two reasons: first, if you want to use those scenes as unbiased comparisons to another rendering system or to your implementation of a new light transport algorithm, it's important to be aware of this (and likely, to modify the scene files to disable this setting). Second, if you're developing a new light transport algorithm, these scenes provide a number of challenging situations that current algorithms don't handle well; new algorithms that handle them effectively would be useful contributions to rendering.

Overview of Scenes

(##) Barcelona Pavilion

barcelona-pavilion: Model of van der Rohe's classic Barcelona Pavilion, including both daytime and nighttime lighting setups. In the daytime setup, all illumination comes from a realistic sky model encoded in an HDR environment map. The night model has a very dark sky map and a number of area light sources; it is particularly challenging to render, as much of the illumination travels through one or more layers of glass before hitting a surface.

barcelona-pavilion: Thanks to Hamza Cheggour, who created this great model and made it available via a CC-BY license.

(##) Bathroom

bathroom: Modern bathroom with soft indirect lighting and depth of field. Given the mirrors and bright wight walls, multi-bounce indirect illumination has a substantial effect on the overall appearance of the scene.

Thanks to "nacimus", who made this scene available under the CC-BY license. Downloaded from Blendswap.

(##) BMW M6

bmw-m6: BMW M6 car (model year 2006) illuminated by a realistic skylight model.

Thanks to Fred C. M'ule Jr. ("tyrant monkey" on BlendSwap) for this nice car model. CC-Zero (public domain) license. Downloaded from Blendswap.

(##) Breakfast

breakfast: Indoor scene with chairs around a table. One variant of the scene has light streaming in through blinds from the side such that most of the scene is only illuminated indirectly; finding these indirect illumination paths can be challenging. Another variant is only illuminated by the lights above the table; handling the resulting light transport through the glass light fixtures is a good challenge for many light transport algorithms.

Thanks to "Wig42", who made this scene available under a CC-BY license. Downloaded from Blendswap.

(##) Buddha Fractal

buddha-fractal: Stanford Buddha model made out of Stanford Buddha models. 25,250 instances, each with 29,890 triangles, giving a total geometric complexity of over 750 million triangles.

Thanks for Guillermo M. Leal Llaguno for this fun variant of the Stanford Buddha model. (Buddha model courtesy Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory).

(##) Bunny Fur

bunny-fur: Stanford Bunny with fur growing out of it, modeled using the new curve shape added to pbrt in the third edition of the book. Over 1.5 million curves are used.

Bunny model courtesy Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory. Environment map thanks to Bernhard Vogl.

(##) Caustic Glass

caustic-glass: A delightfully complex caustic pattern that results from light being projected through a realistic model of a bumpy glass.

Thanks to Simon Wendsche (https://byob.carbonmade.com/) for the model.

(##) Chopper Titan

chopper-titan: Shiny motorcycle sitting on a glossy surface, illuminated by a sunset.

Thanks to julioras3d for this model; CC-BY license. Downloaded from Blendswap.

(##) Cloud

cloud: One scene with a bright white cloud, showing the effect of multiple scattering in participating media, and another, with the same volume density but with much more absorption, leading to a much darker cloud. The two images show the difference between highly-scattering and highly-absorptive media.

Smoke dataset courtesy Duc Nguyen and Ron Fedkiw. Skylight environment map courtesy Nolan Goodnight.

(##) Coffee Splash

coffee-splash: A splash of coffee in a cup with a spoon, rendered using a complex simulated BRDF for the cup and saucer, and multiple scattering in participating media inside the splash.

Scene thanks to "guismo"; CC-BY license. Downloaded from Blendswap. Environment thanks to Bernhard Vogl.

(##) Contemporary Bathroom

contemporary-bathroom: Another contemporary bathroom scene. This scene is quite challenging to render without visible noise: specular light transport by the large mirror and the very small area light sources surrounded by glass in the light bulbs are difficult to render efficiently.

Scene thanks to Mareck, CC-Zero (public domain) license. "contemporary_china" texture used for wallpaper thanks to Adam Charlts; texture contrast was increased for the render. "American_walnut_pxr128" wood texture courtesy Pixar Animation studios, CC-BY license. Abstract print seen in mirror based on a smoke photograph by Vanessa Pike-Russell, CC-BY license; the photo was inverted and contrast was adjusted for rendering. Hurricane image used for photo on wall courtesy NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, CC-BY license.

(##) Crown

crown: Detailed model of the Austrian Imperial Crown, featuring an accurate reflection model for the gold metal surfaces, and many gems that refract light passing through them.

This amazing model was created by Martin Lubich (http://www.loramel.net/).

(##) Dam Break

dambreak: two frames of a fluid simlulation from Yining Karl Li's nifty Ariel fluid simulator.

(##) Dragon

dragon: A scanned dragon model rendered with many different materials, showing off the visual differences between them.

Dragon model courtesy Christian Schüller. Environment map thanks to Bernhard Vogl.

(##) Ecosystem

ecosys: Fairly complex outdoor scene with many plants and trees, illuminated by an environment map. This scene was used for the cover image for the first edition of Physically Based Rendering.

Scene from Deussen et al., Realistic modeling and rendering of plant ecosystems.

(##) Figures

figures: A variety of fairly simple scenes used for figures in the book.

(##) Ganesha

ganesha: Very detailed scan of a small statue with over 4.3 million triangles, illuminated by a few area light sources.

Model scanned by Wenzel Jakob.

(##) Hair

hair: Hair geometry to show off the hair scattering model now available in pbrt, as described in The Implementation of a Hair Scattering Model.

Many thanks to Cem Yuskel for the hair geometry, which is licensed under a "no commercial use" license.

(##) Head

head: Human head model with a realistic BSSRDF, showing the effect of subsurface scattering.

Model thanks to Infinite Realities, Inc., CC-BY license. Environment map thanks to USC-ICT light probe image gallery.

(##) Killeroo

killeroos: The classic "killeroo" model, in a variety of settings.

Thanks to headus/Rezard for the model.

(##) Landscape

landscape: Very complex realistic outdoor landscape scene, featuring 23,241 unique plant models. Thanks to object instancing, the scene has a total geometric complexity of 3.1 billion triangles, even though only 24 million triangles need to be stored in memory. view-0.pbrt is the cover image of the third edition of the Physically Based Rendering book.

Many thanks to Jan-Walter Schliep, Burak Kahraman, and Timm Dapper from Laubwerk for this amazing scene.

(##) LTE Orb

lte-orb: Spherical orb with an inset spherical object. The geometric structure of the shapes involved provides a useful tool for visualizing the appearance of various materials.

Thanks to Yasutoshi Mori (@MirageYM) for this model; CC-BY license.

(##) Measure One

measure-one: A number of frames converted from Beeple's amazing Zero-Day animation. Converted from Cinema4D files downloaded from Beeple's website. (Note that the original materials and lighting is much better--improvements to our conversion gratefully received!)

License"

(##) PBRT Book

pbrt-book: A realistic model of the second edition of the Physically Based Rendering book.

Thanks to Karl Li (@yiningkarlli) for this fun model.

(##) San Miguel

sanmiguel: A complex model inspired by a hotel in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Thanks to Guillermo M. Leal Llaguno for this excellent scene.

(##) Simple

simple: A variety of relatively simple scenes.

(##) Smoke Plume

A few renderings of a smoke simulation around an obstacle using volume data generated using the simulator published with Kim et al.'s Wavelet Turbulence for Fluid Simulation paper.

(##) Sportscar

sportscar: Sportscar model, in a variety of illumination settings, showing off the substantial differences in overall visual appearance that result.

Excellent model and pbrt conversion courtesy of Yasutoshi Mori (@MirageYM); CC-BY license. Skylight environment maps courtesy Nolan Goodnight.

(##) SSS Dragon

sssdragon: Dragon model rendered with subsurface scattering, where multiple scene description files show the visual effect of changing the density of the scattering medium.

Dragon model courtesy Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory. Environment map thanks to Bernhard Vogl.

(##) StructureSynth

structuresynth: A few interesting procedural scenes scenes converted from Structure Synth into pbrt's format.

Environment map thanks to USC-ICT light probe image gallery.

(##) Transparent Machines

transparent-machines: A variety of highly detailed glass shapes illuminated by skylight. For good results, upwards of 64 ray bounces are required.

Models from frames of @beeple's amazing Transparent Machines video. License"

(##) TT Car

tt: Audi TT car model.

Thanks for Marko Dabrovic and Mihovil Odak for the car model. Environment map thanks to USC-ICT light probe image gallery.

(##) Veach Bidir

veach-bidir: A version of a classic scene with a variety of complex types of light transport developed by Eric Veach to show the value of bidirectional path tracing.

(##) Veach MIS

veach-mis: Another scene based on one by Eric Veach, this one showing off the benefit of multiple importance sampling when rendering surfaces of varying glossiness illuminated by light sources of various sizes.

(##) Villa

villa: Modern indoor environment. The villa-daylight.pbrt version is particularly tricky to render, as all of the indoor lighting comes via specular paths from the outside through the windows.

Many thanks to Florent Boyer for this scene. Skylight environment map courtesy Nolan Goodnight.

(##) VW Van

vw-van: Volkswagen Van, illuminated by a HDR environment map.

Model courtesy of Greyscalegorilla, exported from Cinema4D using the Cinema4D pbrt exporter.

(##) Volume Caustic

volume-caustic: A glass sphere in participating media, showing off a volumetric caustic--light being focused in the scattering medium after passing through the sphere.

(##) White Room

white-room: Interior scene, with two illumination configurations. The daytime variant is primarily illuminated by light coming through the windows from the outdoors, while the nighttime version is illuminated by the two lights in the scene.

Scene thanks to Jay Hardy, CC-BY license. Downloaded from Blendswap.

(##) Yeah Right

yeahright: An unusual and intricate form on a glossy plate.

"Interesting" shape generated by Keenan Crane. Environment map thanks to USC-ICT light probe image gallery.

(##) WIP

wip: This directory has a few scenes that aren't quite ready; renderings don't yet look great, parameters need tuning, etc. We'll try to get to this eventually, or if you're able to get them in good shape, please submit an update (see the following).

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