Protruded Displacement Mapping for Accurate 3D Surface Rendering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional image-based displacement mapping methods struggle to accurately represent objects protruding from a polygonal surface, leading to unnatural results and difficulties in representing detailed shapes, as they depress the surface instead of protruding it, causing information omission and distortion.
Innovation Solution
The proposed method employs an image-based protruded displacement mapping system that searches for intersection points between the object's surface and the viewer's line of sight, adds separate polygonal surfaces to handle overflow, and corrects steeply inclined surfaces, allowing objects to protrude from the reference surface without modifying it, using a combination of shape-based and image-based techniques.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If conventional image-based displacement mapping is used to represent surface details, then the method can avoid generating micro-polygons and reduce computational complexity, but it cannot accurately represent protruding objects and causes information omission and distortion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional displacement mapping approach by allowing the displacement map to define protruding surfaces rather than depressing them. The polygonal surface serves as a reference, and the displacement map values are used to protrude the object surface upwards from this reference surface, enabling accurate representation of protruding objects while maintaining the computational efficiency of image-based methods
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new dimension to the displacement mapping process by adding a separate polygonal surface layer that represents the protruding geometry. This layered structure allows the system to handle protruding objects by combining the reference polygonal surface with an additional displacement surface, enabling accurate 3D representation without generating micro-polygons
2Ease of manufacture
If the polygonal surface is depressed downwards to represent object details, then the conventional displacement mapping can be implemented, but the bottom surface is moved away from the viewpoint causing contraction and information loss
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional approach by protruding the object surface upwards from the polygonal reference surface rather than depressing it downwards. This inversion ensures that the bottom surface remains at the reference level and is not moved away from the viewpoint, preventing contraction and information loss while maintaining implementation simplicity
3Manufacturing precision
If triangle mesh generation is used to represent surface details, then accurate geometry can be achieved, but a large number of micro-polygons are generated making it unsuitable for interactive programs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses image-based displacement mapping to create a virtual copy of the object surface geometry without generating actual micro-polygons. The displacement map serves as a template that defines the protruding geometry through texture coordinate mapping, allowing accurate representation of surface details while avoiding the computational burden of generating and rendering large numbers of micro-polygons
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical triangle mesh generation system with an image-based displacement mapping system. Instead of generating geometric meshes to represent surface details, the system uses texture maps and displacement data to define geometry, substituting the mechanical polygon-based approach with an image-based representation that achieves similar visual results with much lower computational complexity
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates, in general, to technology applied to entertainment information devices, such as video game machines or computer game programs, information devices for representing geo-spatial information, or information devices for performing three-dimensional rendering using computer graphics and, more particularly, to a protruded displacement mapping method, which represents an object as protruding from a surface. In the image-based protruded displacement mapping method of the present invention, an intersection point search step of searching for an intersection point of a surface of a protruding object, defined by the displacement information, and an observers sight line, and displaying the shape of the protruding object on the polygonal surface, is performed. An overflow representation step of adding a separate polygonal surface and representing a shape of the protruding object, corresponding to overflow deviating from a boundary of the polygonal surface, on the added polygonal surface, is performed. A steeply inclined surface step of detecting a steeply inclined surface in the shape of the protruding object is performed. A steeply inclined surface correction step of representing an additional texture on the steeply inclined surface is performed.