Visibility-based Forest Walk-through Using Inertial LOD Model

Rendering large scenes with many complex objects places prohibitive requirements on modern graphics hardware. For example, while methods for rendering near photo-realistic vegetation scenes have been described in the literature, they require minutes of computation. In this paper we present scene and LOD management techniques for achieving interactive frame rates for a forest walk-through. The proposed framework selects the LOD based on object visibility, in addition to the projected size. Run-time visibility computation is used to efficiently schedule dynamic scene modification, such as interactive forest growing. We also propose an inertial LOD model to minimize popping artifacts – rather than instantly switching the LODs, discrete LODs are smoothly blended over a number of frames. The proposed techniques can be readily adapted for scenes other than forests, providing support for simulations involving both static and dynamic environments, whether synthetic natural (e.g., dense vegetation) or man-made (e.g., urban landscapes).