Generating stereoscopic videos of realistic 3D scenes with ray tracing

Abstract

Virtual binocular stereoscopic camera models that can be used in generation of stereoscopic images or videos of virtual 3D scenes by use of computer graphics techniques are presented and analyzed in detail. It is found that the paralleloptical-axis model is most appropriate for synthesizing stereoscopic images or videos of virtual 3D scenes. Mathematical formulae for calculating the camera position and ‘lookat’ position of both the left and right virtual cameras therein are developed. Light-source visibility filtering with a depth variation constraint is proposed to speed up the ray-tracing-based soft shadow rendering of virtual 3D scenes and meanwhile to eliminate the drawback of generating fake shadows associated with the original light-source visibility filtering method; dual light-source visibility filtering scheme is suggested to make shadows reflected in a mirror surface correctly feature penumbra. The stereoscopic video experimentally generated by use of our method shows pleasing visual realism and impressive stereoscopic effects.