An enhancement of billboard for highly detailed 3D object representation

Abstract

set of billboards can represent 3D models for simplification in real-time rendering. Unlike conventional polygon methods, a billboard based technique has the rendering time of the model proportional to its contribution of data to the image. Thus, it has a Level of detail property. However, previous techniques still have limited viewing angle and do not accurately represent the model. This research presents an adaptive rendering method using enhanced billboards. First, each enhanced billboard, representing a portion of the model, is defined to have four maps: depth map, normal map, color map and transparency map. The model is then projected onto a number of viewing planes in different viewing directions. These enhanced billboards are rendered based on ray-height-field intersection algorithm implemented on graphics processing unit (GPU). This representation can maintain the geometry and the silhouette of the model with no limit in viewing direction. Moreover, real-time rendering is supported.