This paper presents a rapid hierarchical radiosity algorithm for illuminating scenes containing lar e polygonal patches. The afgorithm constructs a hierarchic“J representation of the form factor matrix by adaptively subdividing patches into su bpatches according to a user-supplied error bound. The algorithm guarantees that all form factors are calculated to the same precision, removing many common image artifacts due to inaccurate form factors. More importantly, the al o-rithm decomposes the form factor matrix into at most O? n) blocks (where n is the number of elements). Previous radiosity algorithms represented the element-to-element transport interactions with n2 form factors. Visibility algorithms are given that work well with this approach. Standard techniques for shooting and gathering can be used with the hierarchical representation to solve for equilibrium radiosities, but we also discuss using a brightness-weighted error criteria, in conjunction with multigrldding, to even more rapidly progressively refine the image.