Global Illumination & Caustics

I've finished my photon mapping algorithm to include diffuse inter-reflection (i.e. color bleed) and caustics (bright spots caused by the focusing of light by dielectric materials - in this case glass).

350,000 photons were emitted for both the global and caustic photon maps with each having a search radius of 1.0 and 0.1 respectively. 16 samples per pixel were used with 8 light samples used per intersection to calculate soft shadows.

Rendering time for this image was approximately 50 minutes. This can definitely be improved by further optimizing my code. Currently the image appears slightly grainy because I am not using enough samples. However, once I further optimize my code, I'll be able to up the sample count without drastically increasing the render time.

Lastly there is still some speckling on the ceiling and glass sphere that I need to take care of.