Improving k-buffer Methods via Occupancy Maps

Abstract

In this work, we investigate an efficient approach to treat fragment racing when computing k-nearest fragments. Based on the observation that knowing the depth position of the k-th fragment we can optimally find the k-closest fragments, we introduce a novel fragment culling component by employing occupancy maps.Without any softwareredesign, the proposed scheme can easily be attached at any k-buffer pipeline to efficiently perform early-z culling. Finally, we report on the efficiency, memory space, and robustness of the upgraded k-buffer alternatives providing comprehensive comparison results.