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Copilot AI commented Jul 10, 2025

Problem

The original photon mapping implementation suffered from several architectural issues:

  • Tight coupling: Photon mapping code was tightly integrated into the Scene class, violating single responsibility principle
  • Mixed responsibilities: Scene class handled both scene management AND photon mapping operations
  • Poor testability: Photon mapping functionality was embedded in Scene, making it difficult to test independently
  • No clear abstraction: Photon generation, storage, and querying were all mixed together without clear interfaces

Solution

This PR introduces a modular photon mapping system that separates concerns into three distinct components:

1. PhotonMap (include/photon/photon_map.hpp)

  • Responsibility: Photon storage and spatial queries
  • Stores photons using KD-tree for efficient spatial queries
  • Provides nearest neighbor queries with radius constraints
  • Thread-safe and memory efficient

2. PhotonMapper (include/photon/photon_mapper.hpp)

  • Responsibility: Photon generation and ray tracing
  • Generates photons from light sources in a scene
  • Traces photons through the scene using Monte Carlo methods
  • Separates regular photons from caustic photons

3. PhotonMappingRenderer (include/photon/photon_mapping_renderer.hpp)

  • Responsibility: Radiance estimation using photon maps
  • Performs photon density estimation for diffuse surfaces
  • Handles specular and transmission bounces
  • Integrates with existing kernel system

Key Changes

  • New directory structure: Created include/photon/ and src/photon/ for modular components
  • Backward compatibility: Existing PhotonMappingStrategy automatically uses the new system
  • Improved API: Clean, focused interfaces for each component
  • Better testing: Added comprehensive tests for each module
  • Enhanced documentation: Detailed documentation with usage examples

Usage Example

// Create photon mapper
auto photonMapper = std::make_shared<photon::PhotonMapper>();

// Generate photon maps
photonMapper->generatePhotonMaps(scene, 10000, 5);

// Create renderer
auto renderer = std::make_shared<photon::PhotonMappingRenderer>();
renderer->setPhotonMapper(photonMapper);

// Use in rendering
RGB color = renderer->renderPixel(viewDirection, intersection, scene, config, kernel, maxBounces);

Benefits

  1. Separation of concerns: Each class has a single, well-defined responsibility
  2. Testability: Each component can be tested independently
  3. Reusability: PhotonMapper can be used with different rendering strategies
  4. Maintainability: Easier to understand and modify photon mapping code
  5. Extensibility: Easy to add new photon mapping algorithms or optimizations

Testing

  • Added test/test_photon_mapping.cpp for unit testing photon mapping components
  • Added test/test_photon_render.cpp for integration testing with actual rendering
  • All existing tests continue to pass, ensuring no regression

Files Changed

  • New modules: include/photon/, src/photon/ with modular photon mapping implementation
  • Updated Scene: Added interface methods for the new photon mapper
  • Updated PhotonMappingStrategy: Now uses the new modular system
  • Updated Makefile: Added support for photon module compilation
  • Documentation: Added comprehensive documentation in docs/photon_mapping_modularization.md

The modularization makes the photon mapping system much more maintainable and testable while preserving all existing functionality and performance characteristics.


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Copilot AI changed the title [WIP] Take a birds eye look at the source code and propose a way to better modularize the code, specially between the photon mapping code and the rest Modularize photon mapping system for better separation of concerns and testability Jul 10, 2025
Copilot AI requested a review from jeregon1 July 10, 2025 13:36
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3 participants