Fast local and global illuminations through a SIMD z-buffer
The z-buffer is a well-known hidden-part removal technique commonly used by local illumination algorithms. Some global illumination approaches use this technique too, in order to approximate energy exchanges. In this paper we propose a massively parallel implementation of the z-buffer on the MP-1 machine. Efficiency is achieved by precisely studying the different stages of the algorithm, and by taking care in correctly using the SIMD control of the architecture. Local illumination models are then applied to the Z-buffer algorithm, by using Gouraud and Phong's interpolations. Finally the parallel Z-buffer is used in a massively parallel radiosity algorithm. The results obtained anew to provide quickly illuminated images by decreasing dramatically the computation time required for global illumination.
z-buffer hidden-part removal local illumination efficiency radiosity simd parallelism