Parallax occlusion mapping (POM) is an enhancement of the
parallax mapping
Parallax mapping (also called offset mapping or virtual displacement mapping) is an enhancement of the bump mapping or normal mapping techniques applied to textures in 3D rendering applications such as video games. To the end user, this means t ...
technique. Parallax occlusion mapping is used to
procedurally create 3D definition in textured surfaces, using a
displacement map
Displacement mapping is an alternative computer graphics technique in contrast to bump, normal, and parallax mapping, using a texture or height map to cause an effect where the actual geometric position of points over the textured surface ar ...
(similar to a topography map) instead of through the generation of new geometry.
[Brawley, Z., and Tatarchuk, N. 2005. Parallax Occlusion Mapping: Self-Shadowing, Perspective-Correct Bump Mapping Using Reverse Height Map Tracing. In ShaderX3: Advanced Rendering with DirectX and OpenGL, Engel, W., Ed., Charles River Media, pp. 135-154. https://books.google.com/books?id=DgMSb_10l7IC&pg=PA135&dq=parallax+occlusion] This allows developers of
3D rendering applications to add 3D complexity in
textures, which correctly change relative to
perspective and with self
occlusion
Occlusion may refer to:
Health and fitness
* Occlusion (dentistry), the manner in which the upper and lower teeth come together when the mouth is closed
* Occlusion miliaria, a skin condition
* Occlusive dressing, an air- and water-tight trauma ...
in
real time (
self-shadowing is additionally possible), without sacrificing the
processor cycles required to create the same effect with geometry calculations.
Parallax occlusion mapping was first published in 2005 by Zoe Brawley and Natalya Tatarchuk in ShaderX3.
Natalya Tatarchuk conducted presentations of the technology at
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...
in 2005. It was used in
ATI
Ati or ATI may refer to:
* Ati people, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines
**Ati language (Philippines), the language spoken by this people group
** Ati-Atihan festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines
*Ati language (China), a ...
's 'Toy Shop Demo' to showcase the
Radeon X1800's Ultra-Threaded SM 3.0 technology. It is used in video games and rendering engines such as
Unigine,
CryEngine 2
CryEngine (stylized as CRYENGINE) is a game engine designed by the German game developer Crytek. It has been used in all of their titles with the initial version being used in '' Far Cry'', and continues to be updated to support new consoles an ...
, and
CryEngine 3
CryEngine (stylized as CRYENGINE) is a game engine designed by the German game developer Crytek. It has been used in all of their titles with the initial version being used in ''Far Cry'', and continues to be updated to support new consoles and ...
and Unreal Engine 4. It has also been used to create
stereoscopic
Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...
images from single images.
External links
A closer look at POM on gamedev.netDachsbacher, C., Tatarchuk, N. Prism Parallax Occlusion Mapping with Accurate Silhouette Generation as a .pdfDachsbacher, C., Tatarchuk, N. Prism Parallax Occlusion Mapping with Accurate Silhouette Generation as a .mov
Parallax Occlusion Mapping in GLSL on sunandblackcat.com
References
{{Reflist
Texture mapping
Parallax