Automatic shader level of detail

Current graphics hardware can render procedurally shaded objects in real-time. However, due to resource and performance limitations, interactive shaders can not yet approach the complexity of shaders written for film production and software rendering, which may stretch to thousands of lines. These constraints limit not only the complexity of a single shader, but also the number of shaded objects that can be rendered at interactive rates. This problem has many similarities to the rendering of large models, the source of extensive research in geometric simplification and level of detail. We introduce an analogous process for shading : shader simplification. Starting from an initial detailed shader, shader simplification automatically produces a set of simplified shaders or a single new shader with extra level-of-detail parameters that control the shader execution. The resulting level-of-detail shader can automatically adjust its rendered appearance based on measures of distance, si...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: EGH
• Authors: Marc Olano, Bob Kuehne, Maryann Simmons
• Keywords: EGH 2003, Shader, Shader Simplification, Single Shader