Virtual Geometry Textures Implications of combining Virtual Texturing with geometry textures

Abstract

This thesis investigates the implications and expected performance of a Virtual Geometry Textures system, defined as a system that uses images to stream and render geometry similarly to Virtual Texturing. Most added knowledge has been obtained by investigating a fuse of two 3D engines, aimed at acquiring each of the desired properties of Virtual Texturing. The thesis provides insights on implications and obstacles discovered during that investigation. It also suggests possible solutions and further optimizations that can be made based on these insights. Further, a survey is presented which lead to Adaptive Quad Patches being the choice of system for further the investigation. It renders the geometry as subdivided patches with vertex-displacement maps. The investigation showed that Virtual Texturing is not yet beneficial when added to this type of patch based rendering in WebGL since (1.) patch seams must be pre-computed on the CPU, and (2.) rendering of pre-tessellated geometry patches is currently not effective enough to justify the use of a page cache.