Synthetic Light Field Archive

This website provides a number of light field datasets that I have used for various 3D display and also light field camera related research projects.

All light fields on this website are rendered as .png images with POV-Ray and (usually) contain either 5x5 or 7x7 views of different 3D scenes. The viewpoints are equally spaced in a two-plane light field parameterization, as indicated for each dataset. Some of the light fields contain objects of other databases and are indicated as such. To get you started, you can download some Matlab scripts to read the images and generate other important data structures for further processing.

Please note that there are two different types of light fields in this archieve: those simulating light fields inside a camera and those more useful for 3D displays. Some of the scenes are available as both types, others are not. The display light fields usually span a wide field of view, simulating a viewing zone in which an observer can freely move in front of the glasses-free 3D display. The camera light fields contain variation as observed over the aperture of a simulated camera. For all camera light fields, renderings with various camera aperture sizes are available, the parameters for each dataset are listed in a README.txt file contained in the zip file.

The Stanford light field archieve is another great resource if you would like to experiment with light fields. While their light fields are captured from real scenes and calibration data is provided, this calibration needs to be taken into account when working with the data. All light fields on this website are rendered on a regular grid that allows for easy processing. Also, I provide one animated light field with 89 periodic frames and 9x3 views for each animation frame (see below).

Feel free to use these datasets, but please cite this website and any of our papers that use them, as indicated for each light field. The precise calibration data for each light field is listed in a README file.

For questions and comments send me an email: gordonw (at) media (dot) mit (dot) edu

Camera Light Fields

Dragon and Bunnies This scene includes motion parallax, translucency, reflections, specularity, high-frequency out-of-focus objects, and occlusions. This light field is available with four different aperture sizes. The 3D bunny and dragon models are available from The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository. We used this light field in our Compressive Light Field Photography Siggraph 2013 project.

Shrubbery This scene includes a lot of high-frequency details at various depths and is great for learning light field dictionaries. This light field is available with three different aperture sizes. The 3D model is available, for purchase, at www.turbosquid.com. We used this light field in our Compressive Light Field Photography Siggraph 2013 project.

Messerschmitt This scene includes motion parallax, occlusion, translucency, and specularity, being exhibited by the trunk, the fender, the window, and the roof of the car, respectively. The perfect light field to show a variety of effects. The 3D model is available, for purchase, at www.turbosquid.com. This light field is available with three different aperture sizes. We used this light field in our Compressive Light Field Photography Siggraph 2013 project.

Dice This scene includes motion parallax, occlusion, and translucency. It is a great scene to show any occlusion-related effect. The original povray scene is publish here under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Therefore, this dataset is published under the same license! This light field is available with three different aperture sizes. We used this light field in our Compressive Light Field Photography Siggraph 2013 project.

Fish This scene includes motion parallax, occlusions, and high-frequency details on the out-of-focus coral and fish tail. This light field is available with three different aperture sizes. We used this light field in our Compressive Light Field Photography Siggraph 2013 project.

Display Light Fields

Bunnies This scene includes motion parallax, translucency, reflections, specularity, and occlusions. This light field is available with 5x5 views covering a field of view of 20 degrees. The 3D bunny model is available from The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository. We used this light field in our Tensor Displays Siggraph 2012 project.

Animated Bunnies This is an animated version of the bunnies scene. I rendered 89 periodic animation frames (can be played in a loop), where each light field is has 9x3 views covering a field of view of 20x5 degrees. As usual, the 3D bunny model is available from The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository. We used this light field in our Tensor Displays Siggraph 2012 project and also for some animations that we showed on our Siggraph 2012 ETech demo.

Fish This scene includes motion parallax, occlusions, and high-frequency details on the out-of-focus coral and fish tail. This light field is available with 5x5 views covering a field of view of 10, 20, or 30 degrees. We used this light field in our Tensor Displays Siggraph 2012 project.

T-Rex This scene includes motion parallax, high-frequency occlusions, a fearsome t-rex, and shrubbery. This light field is available with 5x5 views covering a field of view of 20 or 50 degrees. We used this light field in our Tensor Displays Siggraph 2012 project.

Teapot This scene includes very strong motion parallax, strong reflections, and occlusions. This light field is available with 5x5 views covering a field of view of 20 degrees. We used this light field in our Tensor Displays Siggraph 2012 project.

Red Dragon This scene includes motion parallax, occlusion, and some reflections on the floor. The 3D model is available from The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository. This light field is available with 7x7 orthographic views covering a field of view of 10 degrees. We used this light field in our Polarization Fields Siggraph Asia 2011 project.

Happy Buddha This scene includes motion parallax, occlusion, translucency, and specularity. The 3D model is available from The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository. This light field is available with 7x7 orthographic views covering a field of view of 10 degrees. We used this light field in our Polarization Fields Siggraph Asia 2011 project.

Messerschmitt This scene includes motion parallax, occlusion, translucency, and specularity, being exhibited by the trunk, the fender, the window, and the roof of the car, respectively. The perfect light field to show a variety of effects. The 3D model is available, for purchase, at www.turbosquid.com. This light field is available with 7x7 orthographic views covering a field of view of 10 degrees. We used this light field in our Layered 3D Siggraph 2011 project.

Dice This scene includes motion parallax, occlusion, and translucency. It is a great scene to show any occlusion-related effect. The original povray scene is publish here under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Therefore, this dataset is published under the same license! This light field is available with 7x7 orthographic views covering a field of view of 10 degrees. We used this light field in our Layered 3D Siggraph 2011 project.

Green Dragon This scene contains reflections on the ground, specularities on the dragon skin, and a nicely visible depth effect. It has served us well in demonstrating depth of field related effects. The original 3D model is freely available at The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository. This light field is available with 7x7 orthographic views covering a field of view of 10 degrees. We used this light field in our Layered 3D Siggraph 2011 project.

Mini Cooper Doug Lanman and Matt Hirsch used this light field in their HR3D Siggraph Asia 2010 project. The povray scene is publicly available on Gilles Tran's website and is published under the Creative Commons License by Attribution license.

Butterfly We have used this light field in our Layered 3D Siggraph 2011 project. The 3D model is available, for purchase, at www.turbosquid.com.

Lucy I haven't actually used this light field for anything yet. The depth-dependent blur is slightly too weak to properly anti-alias this dataset. The original 3D model is freely available at The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository.