Modern rendering systems require fast and efficient acceleration structures in order to compute visibility in real time. I present several novel data structures and algorithms for computing visibility with high performance. In particular, I present two algorithms for improving heuristic based acceleration structure build. These algorithms, when used in a demand driven way, have been shown to improve build performance by up to two orders of magnitude. Additionally, I introduce ray tracing in perspective transformed space. I demonstrate that ray tracing in this space can significantly improve visibility performance for near-common origin rays such as eye and shadow rays. I use these data structures and algorithms to support a key hypothesis of this dissertation: “There is no silver bullet for solving the visibility problem; many different acceleration structures will be required to achieve the highest performance.” Specialized acceleration structures provide significantly better performance than generic ones and building many specialized structures requires high performance build techniques. Additionally, I present an optimization-based taxonomy for classifying acceleration structures and algorithms in order to identify which optimizations provide the largest improvement in performance. This taxonomy also provides context for the algorithms I present. Finally, I present several novel cost metrics (and a correction to an existing cost metric) to improve visibility performance when using metric based acceleration structures. / text

A fundamental operation in computer graphics is to determine for a given point and direction in a scene, which geometric surface is nearest this point from this direction and thus visible. Conceptually, the point and direction define a "ray". Z-buffer hardware can compute surface visibility for a set of rays with a common origin (i.e. eye point) and a regular pattern of directions in real-time. However, this hardware is much less efficient at performing other visibility computations such as those required to accurately render shadows. A more flexible solution to the visible surface problem is needed. This work introduces the irregular Z-buffer algorithm, which efficiently solves the visible surface problem for rays with a common origin and arbitrary directions. In addition, we identify several changes to classical graphics architectures needed for hardware acceleration of this algorithm. Though these modifications are incremental in nature (i.e. no new functional units are introduced), we show that they enable significant new capability. In tandem with the irregular Z-buffer algorithm, a GPU with these changes has applications in: shadow rendering, indirect illumination, frameless rendering, adaptive anti-aliasing, adaptive textures, and jittered sampling. We explore the performance of hard and soft shadow rendering in particular, by way of a detailed hardware simulator. / text

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Accompanying CD-R contains the source code and related files for compilation and execution of the volume renderer developed in the thesis. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-112).

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Optical Line Scan (OLS) instruments collect data from an altitude of approximately 830km above the surface of the Earth. The night light data from these instruments has been shown to correlate by lit area with national level Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and to correlate with GDP at the State level by total radiance value. Very strong correlation is found between the night light data at a new, larger scale, the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) within the state of Florida. Additional statistical analysis was performed to determine which industries within each MSA explain the greatest amount of variance in the night light data. Industrial variables exhibited strong multi-collinearity. It is therefore impossible to determine which industries explain the greatest variance in the night light image data. / by Dolores Jane Forbes. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The first part of this thesis presents a convenient and flexible calibration method to estimate the relative rotation and translation among multiple cameras. A simple planar pattern is used for accurate calibration and is not required to be simultaneously observed by all cameras. Thus the method is especially suitable for widely spaced camera array. In order to fairly evaluate the calibration results for different camera setups, a novel accuracy metric is introduced based on the deflection angles of projection rays, which is insensitive to a number of setup factors. / The objective of this thesis is to develop a multiview system that can synthesize photorealistic novel views of the scene captured by sparse cameras distributed in a wide area. The system cost is largely reduced due to the small number of required cameras, and the image capture is greatly facilitated because the cameras are allowed to be widely spaced and flexibly placed. The key techniques to achieve this goal are investigated in this thesis. / Cui, Chunhui. / "November 2010." / Adviser: Ngan King Ngi. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-155). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Computer and Information Science

Thesis (M. S.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Jayant, Nikil; Committee Member: Altunbasak, Yucel; Committee Member: Sivakumar, Raghupathy. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Realistic rendering of 3D graphics scenes often requires large amounts of data and processing. High resolution texture data, complex BRDFs, surface modification, and global illumination effects are often necessary to realistically render a synthetic scene, but achieving such effects with a reasonable balance between performance and quality in real-time remains a challenge. Virtual texture techniques have been developed in order to manage extremely high resolution texture data. This thesis describes the implementation of a technique which allows writing of projected texture data to a virtual texture in real-time, allowing infinite numbers of permanent highly detailed surface modifications without the performance or accuracy limitations of decal techniques used in current games. It also describes an implementation of a real-time renderer which uses measured BRDF data, and discusses how applying virtual texturing to measured BRDF data may allow accurate, fast rendering with realistic materials. Finally, it discusses how the virtual decal system can be used to allow artists or game players to interactively alter the material composition of scenes with many distinct measured BRDFs.