Parallel global illumination method based on a nonuniform partitioning of the scene

Achieving an efficient global illumination method is one of the more important current issues in computer graphics. The main problem is that the simulation for large scenes is a highly time-consuming process. In this paper we present a new nonuniform partitioning method in order to achieve a good load balance on a distributed memory system. This method is based on the minimization of a distribution function. Furthermore, we have developed a scheduling based on processor hierarchy which permits the utilization of a visibility mask with crossed frontiers. Finally, in order to evaluate the proposed method, we have used a progressive radiosity algorithm, running on a PC cluster with modern processor and network technology as a testbed. An efficient performance in terms of execution time and speedup has been obtained.