Indirect Illumination: Final Gathering

Final Gathering is another method for calculating indirect lighting. It can be used on its own or in conjunction with global illumination. Final Gathering uses irradiance sampling and ambient occlusion to create the look of ambient and indirect lighting. When Final Gathering is enabled, rays are cast from the camera into the scene. When a ray intersects with a surface, a Final Gathering point is created that samples the irradiance value of the surface and how it is affected by other scene elements, such as nearby objects, lights, and light-emitting surfaces.

Final Gathering uses raytracing rather than photon casting. Each Final Gathering point that the camera shoots into the scene lands on a surface and then emits a number of Final Gathering primary rays, which gather information about the irradiance values and proximity of other scene elements. The information gathered by the rays is used to determine the shading of the surface shading normal at the location of the Final Gathering point. Imagine a hemispherical dome of rays that are emitted from a point on a surface; the rays gather information about other surfaces in the scene. Like global illumination, this allows it to simulate color bleeding from nearby surfaces.