High-quality non-planar projections using real-time piecewise perspective projections

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to real-time rendering of non-planar projections with a single center and straight projection rays. Its goal is to provide the same optimal and consistent image quality GPUs deliver for perspective projections. It therefor renders the result directly without image resampling. In contrast to most object-space approaches, it does not evaluate non-linear functions on the GPU, but approximates the projection itself by a set of perspective projection pieces. Within each piece, graphics hardware can provide optimal image quality. The result is a coherent and crisp rendering. Procedural textures and stylization effects greatly benefit from our method as they usually rely on screen-space operations. The real-time implementation runs entirely on GPU. It replicates input primitives on demand and renders them into all relevant projection pieces. The method is independent of the input mesh density and is not restricted to static meshes. Thus, it is well suited for interactive applications. We demonstrate an analytic and a freely designed projection based on our method. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.