View-dependent displacement mapping

Abstract

Significant visual effects arise from surface mesostructure, such as fine-scale shadowing, occlusion and silhouettes. To efficiently render its detailed appearance, we introduce a technique called view-dependent displacement mapping (VDM) that models surface displacements along the viewing direction. Unlike traditional displacement mapping, VDM allows for efficient rendering of self-shadows, occlusions and silhouettes without increasing the complexity of the underlying surface mesh. VDM is based on per-pixel processing, and with hardware acceleration it can render mesostructure with rich visual appearance in real time.