Why is the outgoing radiance equal to 0 when the angle between n
and l
is <= 0?
This is from the book Real-Time Rendering.
I thought this was a very interesting question and I couldn't explain it myself. So I emailed the authors of Real-Time Rendering and one of the said that it's most likely a mistake. It really should be cos(theta_i) <= 0
gives L(v) = 0
. This means that at 90 degree angle or light projected behind the object, there is no contribution to the final value.