ice-crystal-halos

Repository for the code from my MSc project titled Physically Based Rendering of Ice Crystal Halos.

Consists of a phase function plugin for the Mitsuba renderer written in C++, and a MATLAB script for pre-computing the tabulated phase function.

Sample Renders

Usuage

Generating the Phase Function file

1. Compile (with optimizations) ics_function and write_out using MATLAB Coder
2. Run script.m producing .data file

Compiling the plugin

1. Read Mitsuba documentation for details on how to compile Mitsuba
2. Copy icecrystal.cpp to the mitsuba/src/phase directory
3. Add plugins += env.SharedLibrary('icecrystal', ['icecrystal.cpp']) to the SConscript file
4. Compile Mitsuba

Rendering

1. Follow Mitsuba documentation for creating a scene with a heterogeneous participating media
2. Set the medium's phase function to icecrystal
3. Set the string parameter filename under icecrystal to the path of the generated file
4. Render away!