Introduction
WPF 3D is a real-time rendering method. To get the highest quality renderings of 3D scenes, it is necessary to use a non real-time method that uses techniques like raytracing or radiosity. This can be done in software like Kerkythea, Luxrender, Maxwell, Indigo, etc. These engines simulate the physics of light to achieve near perfect photorealistic renderings.
This article presents an exporter that converts a WPF 3D model to the XML format used by the Kerkythea render engine.
The source code is also located at Codeplex, and I hope other developers would like to contribute to make the exporter complete.
WPF Rendering
The test model consists of four spheres and a checkerboard (a typical raytracing demo scene). with one spot light and two directional lights.
Raytracing
This is the raytracing output from Kerkythea. I used diffuse materials ("Whitted materials" in Kerkythea) with reflections turned on for both the spheres and the checkerboard.
Metropolis Light Transport
The same model rendered using the metropolis light transport algorithm.
Comparison
Ray tracing - Photon map - Metropolis light transport:
Using the Code
The WPF3D model can be exported from a Viewport3D control by the following code:
KerkytheaExporter exporter = new KerkytheaExporter(file);
exporter.BackgroundColor = Colors.Black;
exporter.Width = 1920;
exporter.Height = 1200;
exporter.Reflections = true;
exporter.Shadows = true;
exporter.SoftShadows = true;
exporter.Export(ViewPort1);
exporter.Close();
This will traverse the scene graph, find all the light sources and use the current camera of the Viewport3D.
Issues
- The
Media3D.ModelUIElement3D class is sealed. A new base class was created for the elements used in this scene.
Future Enhancements
- Support texture materials (it already exports texture coordinates)
- The scene graph traversal may be improved with
LogicalTreeHelper?
- Unit tests
Links
History
