Real-time high-quality View-Dependent Texture Mapping using per-pixel visibility

Abstract

We present an extension of View-Dependent Texture Mapping (VDTM) allowing rendering of complex geometric meshes at high frame rates without usual blurring or skinning artifacts. We combine a hybrid geometric and image-based representation of a given 3D object to speed-up rendering at the cost of a little loss of visual accuracy.During a precomputation step, we store an image-based version of the original mesh by simply and quickly computing textures from viewpoints positionned around it by the user. During the rendering step, we use these textures in order to map on the fly colors and geometric details onto the surface of a low-polygon-count version of the mesh.Real-time rendering is achieved while combining up to three viewpoints at a time, using pixel shaders. No parameterization of the mesh is needed and occlusion effects are taken into account while computing on the fly the best viewpoints for a given pixel. Moreover, the integration of this method in common real-time rendering systems is straightforward and allows applying self-shadowing as well as other z-buffer effects.