As both model complexity and processing power increase exponentially, current graphics pipelines will rapidly become outdated. A new basis for global illumination algorithms will have to be formulated.

At the Program of Computer Graphics at Cornell University we have been developing physically based lighting models and perceptually based rendering procedures that will generate synthetic images that are visually and measurably indistinguishable from real world scenes. Our research framework is subdivided into three sub-sections: the local light reflection model, the energy transport simulation, and the visual display algorithms. The first two subsections are physically based, and the last is perceptually based.

The presentation will be mostly pictoral.