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The accumulation buffer: hardware support for high-quality rendering

Published:01 September 1990Publication History

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a system architecture that supports realtime generation of complex images, efficient generation of extremely high-quality images, and a smooth trade-off between the two.Based on the paradigm of integration, the architecture extends a state-of-the-art rendering system with an additional high-precision image buffer. This additional buffer, called the Accumulation Buffer, is used to integrate images that are rendered into the framebuffer. While originally conceived as a solution to the problem of aliasing, the Accumulation Buffer provides a general solution to the problems of motion blur and depth-of-field as well.Because the architecture is a direct extension of current workstation rendering technology, we begin by discussing the performance and quality characteristics of that technology. The problem of spatial aliasing is then discussed, and the Accumulation Buffer is shown to be a desirable solution. Finally the generality of the Accumulation Buffer is explored, concentrating on its application to the problems of motion blur, depth-of-field, and soft shadows.

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            cover image ACM Conferences
            SIGGRAPH '90: Proceedings of the 17th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques
            September 1990
            452 pages
            ISBN:0897913442
            DOI:10.1145/97879

            Copyright © 1990 ACM

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            Publication History

            • Published: 1 September 1990

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            SIGGRAPH '90 Paper Acceptance Rate43of210submissions,20%Overall Acceptance Rate1,822of8,601submissions,21%

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