Displacement Mapping using Scan Conversion Hardware Architectures

This paper presents a novel algorithm and architectures for perspective correct displacement of the surface geometry of a polygonal model using a displacement map. This new displaced surface geometry is passed onto a traditional rendering pipeline. The algorithm uses a multiple pass approach in which the geometry is displaced in the first pass and then the displaced geometry is rendered. The significant features of the algorithm are that the surface is displaced after its triangle mesh is transformed into screen space and that it uses only bi-linear interpolation for calculating the displaced geometry allowing a cheap incremental scan-line implementation. A hardware architecture based on this algorithm is presented along with possible alternative implementations. The technique presented here allows greater photorealism by using increased detail without an increase in bandwidth for geometry or calculation time for transformation.