Voxel Column Culling: Occlusion Culling for Large Terrain Models

Abstract

We present Voxel Column Culling, an occlusion culling algorithm for real-time rendering of large terrain models. This technique can greatly reduce the number of polygons that must be rendered every frame, allowing a larger piece of terrain to be rendered at an interactive frame-rate. This is accomplished by using a form of 3D cell-based occlusion culling. A visibility table for the terrain model is precomputed and stored on disk. This table is then used to quickly bypass portions of the model that are not visible due to self-occlusion of the terrain model. This technique improves performance of real-time terrain simulations by reducing the number of polygons to be rendered.