Global Illumination Techniques for the Simulation of Participating Media

This paper surveys global illumination algorithms for environments including participating media and accounting for multiple scattering. The objective of this survey is the characterization of those methods: Identification of their base techniques, their assumptions, limitations and range of utilization. To this end, the algorithms are grouped into functional categories and each method is briefly reviewed, with a discussion of its complexity and its pros and cons. We finish by discussing some applications as well as remaining areas for investigation.