Real-time Rendering of Translucent Volumetric Surfaces

We present a real-time technique for rendering translucent features on opaque volumetric surfaces. It relies on modern reprogrammable graphics hardware to compute the complicated visual phenomena seen in translucent materials. The proposed technique is based on relief mapping techniques, and is therefore capable of interacting with the underlying opaque surface accurately. A hard self-shadowing technique used for shadowing opaque relief mapped surfaces is extended to suit the simulation of translucent features. Also, light absorption and planar local reflection methods are suggested as improvements to the base technique. The proposed rendering technique proves feasible for real-time applications, and is capable of simulating small-scale translucent features, such as drops of liquid, on opaque surfaces in a very realistic manner.