Ward BRDF

[alakhag]

Summary

I see that the previous version included Ward BRDF, but the new version only contains Disney BRDF. Can you guide how to utilize Ward BRDF model?

System configuration

System information:

OS: Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700K CPU @ 3.60GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
Python: 3.8.3 (default, Jul 2 2020, 16:21:59) [GCC 7.3.0]
NVidia driver: 470.141.03
CUDA: 11.0.221
LLVM: 12.0.0

Dr.Jit: 0.4.1
Mitsuba: 3.2.1
Is custom build? False
Compiled with: GNU 10.2.1
Variants:
scalar_rgb
scalar_spectral
cuda_ad_rgb
llvm_ad_rgb

[njroussel]

Hi @alakhag

Indeed, the Ward BSDF was never ported to Mitsuba3. What do you mean by "guide how to utilize"? Mitsuba 3 doesn't have some sort of mechanism that allows old plugins to be imported. The plugin would need to be re-implemented in Mitsuba3.

[wjakob]

@alakhag You are welcome to port the Ward plugin and propose a PR. But this is not high on our priority list (we consider the Ward model to be a legacy BRDF model that should likely be replaced with more recent physically-based variants based on microfacet theory.)