The randomized z-buffer algorithm: interactive rendering of highly complex scenes

We present a new output-sensitive rendering algorithm, the randomized z-buffer algorithm. It renders an image of an arbitrary three-dimensional scene consisting of triangular primitives by reconstruction from a dynamically chosen set of random surface sample points. This approach is independent of mesh connectivity and topology. The resulting rendering time grows only logarithmically with the numbers of triangles in the scene. We were able to render walkthroughs of scenes of up to 1014 triangles at interactive frame rates. Automatic identification of low detail scene components ensures that the rendering speed of the randomized z-buffer cannot drop below that of conventional z-buffer rendering. Experimental and analytical evidence is given that the image quality is comparable to that of common approaches like z-buffer rendering. The precomputed data structures employed by the randomized z-buffer allow for interactive dynamic updates of the scene. Their memory requirements grow only linearly with the number of triangles and allow for a scene graph based instantiation scheme to further reduce memory consumption.

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