Results of the 1994 Survey on Image Synthesis

At the 1992 Rendering Workshop in Bristol, Michael Cohen presented the results of what he called a very unspecific survey of image sysnthesis researchers. This survey stimulated a great deal of discussion, so we ran a second survey (again distributed by email), and collected twenty-two responses from researchers with an average of ten years experience in image synthesis. The results of this survey, along with the results of Cohen's survey are given here. Since this ws an informal survey, we can certainly draw no hard conclusions from the results. However, we do feel the results are useful for getting a feel for what are perceived to be important research areas. For new researchers in rendering it the results may be helpful in identifying areas that are viewed as being largely solved.