Mobility culling: an efficient rendering algorithm using temporal coherence

Interactive display of complex scenes is a challenging problem in computer graphics. Stich current approaches as z-buffer, level of detail and visibil ity culling have not fully used the temporal coherence between consecutive frames. When the viewing condition is fixed, the color and depth values of static polygons can be obtained from the result of the previous frame and o nly the remaining dynamic polygons require rendering. We present a method t hat enhances the speed of the conventional z-buffer algorithm by exploiting the above temporal coherence. This algorithm is simple to combine with exi sting graphics hardware that supports the conventional z-buffer algorithm. It can manipulate any scene suitable for the z-buffer algorithm without pre processing or human intervention. The rendering time is proportional to the number of dynamic polygons in each frame. Experimental results show that o ur method is faster than the conventional z-buffer algorithm and the perfor mance enhancement becomes higher as the fraction of static polygons increas es. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.