09/08/2021

Visgraf establishes itself as the leading computing conference.

The Visgraf (Computer Graphics Laboratory of IMPA) , the first Brazilian research group to participate in Siggraph – the annual computer graphics conference taking place this week – has been consolidating its participation with each new edition of the event, considered the largest in the field. In addition to featuring presentations by three former students of the IMPA laboratory – Alexandre Chapiro , Fabian Andres Prada , and Adriana Schulz – the 48th edition of the conference included a special presentation, within the program called “ Retrospective ,” on the contribution of the Lua programming language to the game industry.

Created in 1993 for a project by the Brazilian Petroleum Company, at Tecgraf of PUC-Rio, in a partnership between Visgraf researcher Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo and professors from the Department of Informatics at PUC-Rio Roberto Ierusalimschy and Waldemar Celes, Lua has become one of the leading scripting languages in the gaming industry. "The choice of the Lua programming language as the theme of the 'Retrospective' section of Siggraph 2021 reflects its global impact on the software and digital entertainment industry, and in particular, its role in the gaming industry, such as Grim Fandango, World of Warcraft, Angry Birds, and Roblox," Figueiredo emphasized.

Visgraf's lead researcher, Luiz Velho, draws attention to the fact that another presentation on Brazil's contributions to computer graphics, also in the "Retrospective" panel, pays homage to the artist Waldemar Cordeiro (1925-1973). Cordeiro was the subject of the Arteônica exhibition , which Velho curated during Sibgrapi, the conference on graphics, images and patterns, in 1993.

“In a way, we were pioneers in honoring Waldemar Cordeiro. We put on a really cool exhibition, with a catalog featuring all his works. Some of the texts in the catalog were written by Giorgio Moscati, one of his main collaborators. It was the first time that Sibgrapi had a section of its programming dedicated to computer art,” he commented.

Pirambu, de Waldemar Cordeiro/ 1973

Launch of the book "Ray Tracing Gems II"

Another highlight of the Siggraph 2021 program is the launch of the book " Ray Tracing Gems II " , which includes the chapter " Real-Time Rendering of Complex Fractals ", written by Vinícius da Silva (PUC-Rio), Tiago Novello (IMPA), Hélio Lopes (PUC-Rio) and Luiz Velho. Bringing together the state of the art in ray tracing, a technique that is making graphic images increasingly realistic, the book features chapters written by different research groups from around the world, and only two are Brazilian.

The chapter “Real-Time Rendering of Complex Fractals” discusses mathematical visualization for fractals. “It’s a beautiful, cutting-edge work on mathematical visualization for fractals, which we produced together with an editor recommended by them, who refined our project. The great thing about this book is that it was published by Nvidia and Springer in digital and print formats, and the digital version is free,” said the lead researcher of Visgraf.

Visgraf has a tradition at the conference.

Since its debut at the conference in 1991, Visgraf has contributed with articles, courses, poster presentations, and other forms of participation in Siggraph. Researchers Luiz Velho and Diego Nehab have served on the program's select committee and have published five and four articles at the conference, respectively. Six articles by Visgraf students have been among the finalists for the event's awards.

“Every year we submit papers from our students and researchers. We gave four courses at Siggraph that were so successful that they later became well-known books in the field. Our participation in the conference establishes Visgraf as one of the most important groups in this area in Brazil,” Velho emphasized.

About Siggraph 2021

Registration for SIGGRAPH 2021 is still open . Tickets start at US$50 and grant access to various activities in the program. Organized by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the conference has been bringing together educators, researchers, and professionals for 47 years to present the latest innovations in computer graphics and interactive techniques.