Graphics

Exploring 2D and 3D graphics algorithms and representations for rendering, geometric modeling, and animation

Graphics Group

Computer graphics is notoriously compute-hungry. Yet the ambition of synthesizing all known or imaginable visual effects in real-time remains far from fully realized and will require even more computation. Fortunately, specialized graphics hardware is becoming more powerful. Multi-core computers with many processors are also developing. The amount of computation that can be done in parallel and per memory reference both continue to grow. Efficient graphics algorithms must therefore be computed in parallel, respect the memory hierarchy, and minimize communication between threads and between the CPU and graphics co-processor (GPU). Hardware trends favor algorithms that perform computation only over a small, local working set, stream data from input to output, and amplify data as it moves through memory hierarchy levels successively closer to the computational units. We are exploring new graphics representations and algorithms that take advantage of existing and upcoming hardware features to heighten the quality of real-time computer graphics.

People

Mark Finch

Brian Guenter

Hugues Hoppe

Neel Joshi

John Snyder

Publications

Neel Joshi, Sisil Mehta, Steven Drucker, Eric Stollnitz, Hugues Hoppe, Matt Uyttendaele, and Michael Cohen, Cliplets: Juxtaposing Still and Dynamic Imagery, no. MSR-TR-2012-52, 15 May 2012
Huixuan Tang, Neel Joshi, and Ashish Kapoor, Learning a Blind Measure of Perceptual Image Quality , IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2011
Priyam Chatterjee, Neel Joshi, Sing Bing Kang, and Yasuyuki Matsushita, Noise Suppression in Low-Light Images through Joint Denoising and Demosaicing, IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2011
Brian Guenter and Diego Nehab, The Neon Image Processing Language, no. MSR-TR-2010-175, March 2010
Charles Loop and Christian Eisenacher, Real-Time Patch-Based Sort-Middle Rendering on Massively Parallel Hardware, no. MSR-TR-2009-83, May 2009
D. Nehab and H. Hoppe, Random-access rendering of general vector graphics, in ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2008), vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 135, 2008
P. Sitthi-amorn, J. D. Lawrence, L. Yang, P. V. Sander, D. Nehab, and J. Xi, Automated reprojection-based pixel shader optimization, in ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2008), vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 127, 2008
P. V. Sander, D. Nehab, E. Chlamtac, and H. Hoppe, Efficient traversal of mesh edges using adjacency primitives, in ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2008), vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 144, 2008
Zhong Ren, Rui Wang, John Snyder, Kun Zhou, Xinguo Liu, Bo Sun, Peter-Pike Sloan, Hujun Bao, Qunsheng Peng, and Baining Guo, Real-time soft shadows in dynamic scenes using spherical harmonic exponentiation, in ACM Transaction on Graphics, pp. 977–986, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1 August 2006
charles loop and James F. Blinn, Real-Time GPU Rendering of Piecewise Algebraic Surfaces, in Siggraph 2006, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2006
Charles Loop and James F. Blinn, Resolution Independent Curve Rendering using Programmable Graphics Hardware, in July 2005 Transactions on Graphics (TOG) Volume 24 Issue 3 (Siggraph 2005), Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2005
James F. Blinn, Jim Blinn's Corner: Notation, Notation, Notation, pp. 327, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2003
James F. Blinn, Using Tensor Diagrams to Represent and Solve Geometric Problems, pp. 296, 2002
John C. Platt, Optimal Filtering for Patterned Displays, in IEEE Signal Processing Letters, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 179-180, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., July 2000
John C. Platt, Bert Keely, Bill Hill, Bodin Dresevic, Claude Betrisey, Don P. Mitchell, Greg Hitchcock, James F. Blinn, and Turner Whitted, Displaced Filtering for Patterned Displays, in Proc. Society for Information Display Symposium, May 2000
James F. Blinn, Jim Blinn's Corner: Dirty Pixels, pp. 247, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1998

Projects

	Procedural Geometric Representations Rendering and processing parametric, procedurally-defined representations directly.
	Understanding Polynomials A catalog of the types of shapes generated by polynomials of various orders in one, two and three dimensions.
	Direct GPU Rendering of Piecewise Algebraic Curves and Surfaces Direct rendering on the GPU of curves and surfaces defined implicitly as solutions to polynomials.
	Approximating Subdivision Surfaces for Hardware Tessellation Accelerated rendering of high-order surfaces on the GPU using a new programmable tessellator unit proposed for future graphics chips and already shipping on the Xbox 360.
	Efficient Processing of Sampled Geometric Surfaces and Signals Parameterization techniques to represent surface signals and even geometry via “as small as possible” texture maps.
	Random-Access GPU Data Structures Packing sparse data into compact tables while retaining efficient random access.
	3D Surface Acquisition and Reconstruction Methods and representations to improve the sampling and reconstruction of scanned 3D objects.
	Real-Time Texture Synthesis Fast methods to synthesize arbitrarily large textures from small examples on the GPU.
	Real-Time Soft Global Illumination Real time rendering of soft effects such as shadows from large light sources, subsurface scattering, and participating media.

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