ISHair: Importance Sampling for Hair Scattering

We present an importance sampling method for the bidirectional scattering distribution function (bsdf) of hair. Our method is based on the multi‐lobe hair scattering model presented by Sadeghi et al. SPJT10] ]. We reduce noise by drawing samples from a distribution that approximates the bsdf well. Our algorithm is efficient and easy to implement, since the sampling process requires only the evaluation of a few analytic functions, with no significant memory overhead or need for precomputation. We tested our method in a research raytracer and a production renderer based on micropolygon rasterization. We show significant improvements for rendering direct illumination using multiple importance sampling and for rendering indirect illumination using path tracing.