Thomas Auzinger, Michael WimmerORCID iD, Stefan Jeschke
Analytic Visibility on the GPU
Computer Graphics Forum (Proceeding of EUROGRAPHICS 2013), 32(2):409-418, May 2013. [Paper]

Information

  • Publication Type: Journal Paper with Conference Talk
  • Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • Date: May 2013
  • Journal: Computer Graphics Forum (Proceeding of EUROGRAPHICS 2013)
  • Volume: 32
  • Number: 2
  • Location: Girona
  • Lecturer: Thomas Auzinger
  • ISSN: 1467-8659
  • Event: Eurographics 2013
  • Conference date: 6. May 2013 – 10. May 2013
  • Pages: 409 – 418
  • Keywords: GPU, anti-aliasing, SIMD, filter, rendering, analytic, visibility, close-form, hidden surface elimination, hidden surface removal, GPGPU

Abstract

This paper presents a parallel, implementation-friendly analytic visibility method for triangular meshes. Together with an analytic filter convolution, it allows for a fully analytic solution to anti-aliased 3D mesh rendering on parallel hardware. Building on recent works in computational geometry, we present a new edge-triangle intersection algorithm and a novel method to complete the boundaries of all visible triangle regions after a hidden line elimination step. All stages of the method are embarrassingly parallel and easily implementable on parallel hardware. A GPU implementation is discussed and performance characteristics of the method are shown and compared to traditional sampling-based rendering methods.

Additional Files and Images

Additional images and videos

Fast forward: Fast forward video (Techsmith Screen Capture Codec)(56MB). Fast forward: Fast forward video (Techsmith Screen Capture Codec)(56MB).
Overview of the algorithm: The 3D scene is projected onto the image plane (1) and visibility is resolved in this 2.5D space (2). A new edge-triangle intersection algorithm (3) enables us to extend hidden line elimination (4) to full hidden surface elimination by the use of a novel boundary completion method (5). Overview of the algorithm: The 3D scene is projected onto the image plane (1) and visibility is resolved in this 2.5D space (2). A new edge-triangle intersection algorithm (3) enables us to extend hidden line elimination (4) to full hidden surface elimination by the use of a novel boundary completion method (5).
Spikes model: Analytic rendering of pyramidal spikes. This serves as a stress test of the analytic visibility algorithm and even for high depth complexity and small geometric details the scene visibility is robustly and correctly resolved. Spikes model: Analytic rendering of pyramidal spikes. This serves as a stress test of the analytic visibility algorithm and even for high depth complexity and small geometric details the scene visibility is robustly and correctly resolved.
Zoneplates model: Analytic rendering of two overlapping zone plates. Visibility of small geometric details is correctly resolved and excellent anti-aliasing up to numeric precision achieved. Zoneplates model: Analytic rendering of two overlapping zone plates. Visibility of small geometric details is correctly resolved and excellent anti-aliasing up to numeric precision achieved.

Additional files

Paper: Full paper preprint. Paper: Full paper preprint.
Slides: Annotated presentation slides without the videos (2 MB). Slides: Annotated presentation slides without the videos (2 MB).

Weblinks

BibTeX

@article{Auzinger_2013_AnaVis,
  title =      "Analytic Visibility on the GPU",
  author =     "Thomas Auzinger and Michael Wimmer and Stefan Jeschke",
  year =       "2013",
  abstract =   "This paper presents a parallel, implementation-friendly
               analytic visibility method for triangular meshes. Together
               with an analytic filter convolution, it allows for a fully
               analytic solution to anti-aliased 3D mesh rendering on
               parallel hardware. Building on recent works in computational
               geometry, we present a new edge-triangle intersection
               algorithm and a novel method to complete the boundaries of
               all visible triangle regions after a hidden line elimination
               step. All stages of the method are embarrassingly parallel
               and easily implementable on parallel hardware. A GPU
               implementation is discussed and performance characteristics
               of the method are shown and compared to traditional
               sampling-based rendering methods.",
  month =      may,
  journal =    "Computer Graphics Forum (Proceeding of EUROGRAPHICS 2013)",
  volume =     "32",
  number =     "2",
  issn =       "1467-8659",
  pages =      "409--418",
  keywords =   "GPU, anti-aliasing, SIMD, filter, rendering, analytic,
               visibility, close-form, hidden surface elimination, hidden
               surface removal, GPGPU",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2013/Auzinger_2013_AnaVis/",
}