Radiosity, Radiosity

The radiosity problem can be rephrased as a problem of rendering a texture mapped scene. In this case, the computation time increases only linearly with the number of patches (ignoring complex issues like cache use). Using a binary space partitioning tree can massively reduce the amount of time spent determining which patches are completely hidden from others in complex scenes.

One of the advantages of the Radiosity algorithm is that it is relatively simple to explain and implement. This makes it a useful algorithm for teaching students about global illumination algorithms. A typical direct illumination renderer already contains nearly all of the algorithms (perspective transformations, texture mapping, hidden surface removal) required to implement radiosity. A strong grasp of mathematics is not required to understand or implement this algorithm.

In this context Radiosity is the total radiative flux (both reflected and re-radiated) leaving a surface, also sometimes known as radiant exitance. Calculation of Radiosity rather than surface temperatures is a key aspect of the radiosity method that permits linear matrix methods to be applied to the problem.

Source: Wikipedia > Radiosity