“Hierarchical Z-buffer visibility” by Greene, Kass and Miller

  • ©Ned Greene, Michael Kass, and Gavin S. P. Miller

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Title:

    Hierarchical Z-buffer visibility

Presenter(s)/Author(s):



Abstract:


    An ideal visibility algorithm should a) quickly reject most of the
    hidden geometry in a model and b) exploit the spatial and perhaps
    temporal coherence of the images being generated. Ray casting
    with spatial subdivision does well on criterion (a), but poorly on
    criterion (b). Traditional Z-buffer scan conversion does well on
    criterion (b), but poorly on criterion (a). Here we present a hierarchical Z-buffer scan-conversion algorithm that does well on
    both criteria. The method uses two hierarchical data structures, an
    object-space octree and an image-space Z pyramid, to accelerate
    scan conversion. The two hierarchical data structures make it possible to reject hidden geometry very rapidly while rendering visible
    geometry with the speed of scan conversion. For animation, the
    algorithm is also able to exploit temporal coherence. The method
    is well suited to models with high depth complexity, achieving
    orders of magnitude acceleration in some cases compared to ordinary Z-buffer scan conversion.

References:


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