This paper presents a system for rendering very large collections of randomly parameterized plants while generating manageable scene geometries for rendering. A given botanical description of a plant is compiled into a hierarchical volume approximation. This is then integrated into a multiresolution rendering system that uses adaptive volume refinement. For objects that are close to the viewer, explicit polygons are generated, while objects hidden or further away are rendered as groups of microsurfaces. This system can be extended to any polygon intensive rendering.
Dana Marshall, Donald S. Fussell, A. T. Campbell I