Layered view-dependent texture maps

Abstract

Video-based free-viewpoint rendering from multiple view video capture has achieved video-realistic performance replay. Existing free-viewpoint rendering approaches require storage, streaming and re-sampling of multiple videos, which requires high bandwidth and computational resources limiting applications to local replay on high-performance computers. This paper introduces a layered texture representation for efficient storage and view-dependent rendering from multiple view video capture whilst maintaining the video-realism. Layered textures re-sample the captured video according to the surface visibility. Prioritisation of layers according to surface visibility allows the N-best views for all surface elements to be pre-computed significantly reducing both storage and rendering cost. Typically 3 texture map layers are required for free-viewpoint rendering with an equivalent visual quality to the multiple view video giving a significant reduction in storage cost. Quantitative evaluation demonstrates that the layered representation achieves a 90% reduction in storage cost and 50% reduction in rendering cost without loss of visual quality compared to storing only the foreground of the original multiple view video. This reduces the storage and transmission cost for free-viewpoint video rendering from eight cameras to be similar to the requirements for a single video. Streaming the layered representation enables, for the first time, demonstration of free-viewpoint video rendering on mobile devices and web platforms.