Soft bilateral filtering volumetric shadows using cube shadow maps

PLoS One. 2017 Jun 20;12(6):e0178415. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178415. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Volumetric shadows often increase the realism of rendered scenes in computer graphics. Typical volumetric shadows techniques do not provide a smooth transition effect in real-time with conservation on crispness of boundaries. This research presents a new technique for generating high quality volumetric shadows by sampling and interpolation. Contrary to conventional ray marching method, which requires extensive time, this proposed technique adopts downsampling in calculating ray marching. Furthermore, light scattering is computed in High Dynamic Range buffer to generate tone mapping. The bilateral interpolation is used along a view rays to smooth transition of volumetric shadows with respect to preserving-edges. In addition, this technique applied a cube shadow map to create multiple shadows. The contribution of this technique isreducing the number of sample points in evaluating light scattering and then introducing bilateral interpolation to improve volumetric shadows. This contribution is done by removing the inherent deficiencies significantly in shadow maps. This technique allows obtaining soft marvelous volumetric shadows, having a good performance and high quality, which show its potential for interactive applications.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Computer Graphics*
  • Depth Perception*
  • Humans
  • Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Lighting

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Vot. Q.J130000.2528.12H18 RUG at MaGIC- X (Media and Games Innovation Centre of Excellence) UTM-IRDA Digital Me- dia Centre Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 81310 Skudai Johor MALAYSIA.