TonyB <ben### [at] panamaphoenixnet> wrote...
> Is it like an image map? What is it really on the inside of UVPOVs little
> brain? Is it 3D, is it 2D? Where does it come from? What is a photon map
> exactly? (Don't worry about speaking some C, I can read it.)
>
> Thanks in advance for your replies.

Definately take a look at the link that Earl provided (or have a glance at
my paper).

Anyway, a photon map 3d.  The data is stored in a data structure called a
kd-tree (in this case, a 3d-tree).  The kd-tree is similar to a binary tree,
but each split could occur on any one of the three dimensions.  Each
forwards-ray-trace intersection is stored in the tree with intensity and
directional data.  This allows quick access to the data.

During the final rendering step, the tree is searched to find data points
that are near the current point.

-Nathan

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