Relief mapping of non-height-field surface details

The ability to represent non-height-field mesostructure details is of great importance for rendering complex surface patterns, such as weave and multilayer structures. Currently, such representations are based on the use of 3D textures or large datasets of sampled data. While some of the 3D-texture-based approaches can achieve interactive performance, all these approaches require large amounts of memory. We present a technique for mapping non-height-field structures onto arbitrary polygonal models in real time, which has low memory requirements. It generalizes the notion of relief mapping to support multiple layers. This technique can be used to render realistic impostors of 3D objects that can be viewed from close proximity and from a wide angular range. Contrary to traditional impostors, these new one-polygon representations can be observed from both sides, producing correct parallax and views that are consistent with the observation of the 3D geometry they represent. CR Categorie...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: SI3D
• Authors: Fabio Policarpo, Manuel Menezes de Oliveira Neto
• Keywords: Arbitrary Polygonal Models, Complex Surface Patterns, Computer Graphics, Non-height-field Mesostructure Details, SI3D 2006