Preprint A562/2007
Scalable GPU rendering of CSG models
Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo | Romeiro, Fabiano | Velho, Luiz
Keywords:
Existing methods that are able to interactively render complex CSG objects with the aid of GPUs are both image based and severely bandwidth limited. In this paper we present a new approach to this problem whose main advantage is its reduced dependency on memory bandwidth and increased dependency on instruction throughput. Here, we render CSG objects composed of convex primitives by combining spatial subdivision of the CSG object and GPU ray-tracing methods: the object is subdivided until it is locally simple enough to be rendered effectively on the GPU. Our results indicate that our method is able to share the load between the CPU and the GPU more evenly than previous methods, in a way that depends less on memory bandwidth and more on GPU instruction throughput, and hence should have better scalability with newer hardware.