Error-bounded lossy compression of floating-point color buffers using quadtree decomposition

Abstract

In this paper, we present a new color buffer compression algorithm for floating-point buffers. It can operate in either an approximate (lossy) mode or in an exact (lossless) mode. The approximate mode is error-bounded and the amount of introduced accumulated error is controlled via a few parameters. The core of the algorithm lies in an efficient representation and color space transform, followed by a hierarchical quadtree decomposition, and then hierarchical prediction and Golomb–Rice encoding. We believe this is the first lossy compression algorithm for floating-point buffers, and our results indicate significantly reduced color buffer bandwidths and negligible visible artifacts.