A Closed Form Expression for the Form Factor between Two Polygons
Report ID: TR-404-93Author: Schroeder, Peter / Hanrahan, Pat
Date: 1993-01-00
Pages: 13
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Abstract:
Form factors are used in computer graphics and radiative heat transfer to describe the fraction of diffusely refledted light or radiation leaving one surface and arriving at another. They are a fundamental geometric property used for computation. Many special configurations admit closed form solutions. However, the important case of the form factor between two polygons in three space has had no known closed form solution. We give a closed form solution for the case of general (planar, convex, or concave, possibly containing holes) polygons. The solution is non-elementary since it involves dilogarithms.