The accumulation buffer: hardware support for high-quality rendering

Paul Haeberli and Kurt Akeley SiliconGraphicsComputerSystems This paper describes a system architecture that supports realtime generation of complex images, efficient generation of extremely high-quality images, and a smooth trade-off between the two. Based on the paradigm of integration, the architecture extends a state-of-the-art rendering system with an additional high-precision image buffer. This additional buffer, called the Accumulation Buffer, is used to integrate images that are rendered into the framebuffer. While originally conceived as a solution to the problem of aliasing, the Accumulation Buffer provides a general solution to the problems of motion blur and depth-of-field as well. Because the architecture is a direct extension of current workstation rendering technology, we begin by discussing the performance and quality characteristics of that technology. The problem of spatial aliasing is then discussed, and the Accumulation Buffer is shown to be a desirable solution. F...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1990
• Where: SIGGRAPH
• Authors: Paul Haeberli, Kurt Akeley
• Keywords: Accumulation Buffer, Additional Buffer, Computer Graphics, Motion Blur, SIGGRAPH 1990