Using polynomial texture maps for micro-scale occlusions

a polynomial texture and micro-scale technology, applied in the field of computer graphics imaging, can solve the problems of high-resolution shadow maps that are not suitable for micro-occlusions, require extensive memory and processing resources, and are prone to aliasing artifacts, and are expensive in resources

Inactive Publication Date: 2006-09-07
PIXAR ANIMATION
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The existing techniques of determining occlusions and storing the occlusions information are however not suitable for occlusions that occur on a micro-scale, for example, occlusions that occur at a scale of a few pixels (e.g., less than 3×3 pixels).
These high resolution shadow maps however require extensive memory and processing resources for storage and computations of the shadow maps.
As a result, the use of high resolution shadow maps for representing micro-occlusions is very prone to aliasing artifacts, resource expensive, and often impractical if feasible at all.

Method used

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  • Using polynomial texture maps for micro-scale occlusions
  • Using polynomial texture maps for micro-scale occlusions
  • Using polynomial texture maps for micro-scale occlusions

Examples

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Embodiment Construction

[0019] In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent that the invention may be practiced without these specific details.

[0020] Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for representing micro-occlusions in an efficient manner. Micro-occlusions (or micro-scale occlusions) are occlusions of light sources that are caused by geometries having a small scale and generally a high frequency. Examples include occlusions caused by small groves, weave patterns, fuzzy materials, etc. Due to the small scale and high frequencies of the geometries, micro-occlusions caused by such geometries cannot be sampled efficiently using traditional shadowing techniques such as ray-tracing, z-maps, deep z-maps, etc. Each micro-occlusion is generally no more than the size of a few pixels (e.g., 5×5) once projected and rendered.

[0021]FIG. 1 is a simplified b...

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Abstract

Techniques for using a polynomial texture map (PTM) to encode micro-occlusions information. The micro-occlusions information stored in the PTM is then used to display micro-occlusions cast on a surface by surface geometries or other geometries under various irradiance conditions.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application claims priority from and is a continuation application of U.S. Non-Provisional Application No. 10 / 778,582 (Attorney Docket No. 021751-005700US) filed on Feb. 12, 2004, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference for all purposes.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to the field of computer graphics imaging, and more particularly to techniques for efficiently representing micro-scale occlusions. [0003] In computer graphics, the process of generating a 2-dimensional image from a 3-dimensional scene comprising one or more objects from a given viewpoint is referred to as rendering. Animated sequences can then be created by rendering a sequence of images as the scene is gradually changed over time. A great deal of time and effort is being devoted towards improving the photo-realism of rendered images. This includes providing graphic systems with the ability to render o...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & AuthorityApplications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): G09G5/00
CPCG06T15/04
InventorKRAEMER, MANUEL
OwnerPIXAR ANIMATION