We present new hardware-accelerated techniques for rendering surface
light fields with opacity hulls that allow for interactive visualization
of objects that have complex reflectance properties and elaborate
geometrical details. The opacity hull is a shape enclosing the
object with view-dependent opacity parameterized onto that shape.
We call the combination of opacity hulls and surface light fields the
opacity light field. Opacity light fields are ideally suited for rendering
of the visually complex objects and scenes obtained with 3D
photography. We show how to implement opacity light fields in
the framework of three surface light field rendering methods: viewdependent
texture mapping, unstructured lumigraph rendering, and
light field mapping. The modified algorithms can be effectively
supported on modern graphics hardware. Our results show that all
three implementations are able to achieve interactive or real-time
frame rates.
