MURI 3DDI Visualization Seminar
Friday, March 13, 4:300pm, 306 Soda Hall

Gregory Ward Larson
Silicon Graphics, Inc.

The Holodeck: An Image-Based Rendering System

Abstract:

This talk presents a new data structure for light field rendering, which resembles a Star Trek holodeck in form and function. The grid on a holodeck section acts as a four-dimensional rendering target for a ray tracing algorithm, whose goal is to update an interactive display. A holodeck server coordinates separate ray evaluation and display processes, optimizing disk and memory usage. Holodeck data may also be computed off-line, and displayed later with or without an interactive ray calculation. Since the rendering hardware is not being taxed by either geometry or lighting, the net result is interactive walk- throughs of complex spaces with arbitrary surface reflection functions. The holodeck also provides lighting in the form of a position-dependent environment map for hardware rendering of local, dynamic objects.