Using Graphics Hardware to Speed Up Your Visibility Queries

Laurent Alonso
Equipe ISA, INRIA-Lorraine - LORIA

Nicolas Holzschuch
iMAGIS-GRAVIR, INRIA-Rhone-Alpes, ZIRST

This paper appears in issue Volume 5, Number 2.
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Abstract

We present a visibility method that takes advantage of the graphics hardware to give fast answers to visibility queries. Our visibility method is designed to solve two types of visibility queries: point-based visibility queries, where several visibility queries share the same origin, and plane-based visibility queries, where several visibility queries have their origins on the same plane. Both occur frequently in global iluumination algorithms. Combining the speed given by graphics hardware with a software heuristic to avoid reliability problems, our visibility method is significantly faster than ray-casting, and still gives the same results.

Author Information

Laurent Alonso, Equipe ISA, INRIA-Lorraine - LORIA, Campus Scientifique, BP23954506 Vandoeuver lesNancy CEDEX, France Laurent.Alonso@loria.fr

Nicolas Holzschuch, 655avenuede l’Europe, Montbonnot 38334 Saint Ismier CEDEX, France Nicolas.Holzschuch@loria.fr

BibTeX Entry

@article{AlonsoHolzschuch00,
  author = "Laurent Alonso and Nicolas Holzschuch",
  title = "Using Graphics Hardware to Speed Up Your Visibility Queries",
  journal = "journal of graphics tools",
  volume = "5",
  number = "2",
  pages = "33-47",
  year = "2000",
}