Implicit Occluders

Sinésio Pesco, Peter Lindstrom, Valerio Pascucci, Cláudio T. Silva

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

In this paper we propose a novel visibility-culling technique for optimizing the computation and rendering of opaque isosurfaces. Given a continuous scalar field f(x) over a domain D and an isovalue w, our technique exploits the continuity of / to determine conservative visibility bounds implicitly, i.e., without the need for actually computing the isosurface f -1 (w). We generate Implicit Occluders based on the change in sign of f* (x) = f(x) -w, from positive to negative (or vice versa) in the neighborhood of the isosurface. Consider, for example, the sign of f* along a ray r cast from the current viewpoint. The first change in sign of f* within D must contain an intersection of r with the isosurface. Any additional intersection of the isosurface with r is not visible. Implicit Occluders constitute a general concept that can be exploited algorithmically in different ways depending on the framework adopted for visibility computations. In this paper, we propose a simple from-point approach that exploits well-known hardware occlusion queries.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - IEEE Symposium on Volume Visualization and Graphics 2004. VolVis 2004
EditorsD. Silver, T. Ertl, C. Silva
Pages47-54
Number of pages8
StatePublished - 2004
EventProceedings - IEEE Symposium on Volume Visualization and Graphics 2004. VolVis 2004 - Austin, TX, United States
Duration: Oct 11 2004Oct 12 2004

Publication series

NameProceedings - IEEE Symposium on Volume Visualization and Graphics 2004. VolVis 2004

Other

OtherProceedings - IEEE Symposium on Volume Visualization and Graphics 2004. VolVis 2004
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAustin, TX
Period10/11/0410/12/04

Keywords

  • Computational geometry
  • Graphics hardware algorithms
  • Isosurfaces
  • Marching cubes
  • Occlusion culling
  • Visibility computations
  • Volume visualization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering

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