Real-time hierarchical parallel rendering and display of light field images

Abstract

Light field display technology has attracted considerable interest due to its remarkable 3D display capabilities and compatibility. However, the real-time capture of massive light field image data remains a significant challenge in this field. To improve rendering efficiency and achieve high-quality 3D display, a real-time hierarchical parallel rendering method is proposed. The method parallelizes the rendering pipeline of light field images from multi-levels. Firstly, instancing technology is exploited for parallel rendering of high-dimensional orthogonal parallax information. Secondly, perspective coherence of parallax, lighting, and texture information are used for the parallel rendering of one dimensional parallax effects. Thirdly, the data processing process has been simplified and accelerated by using parallel scanning slicing algorithms and parallel pixel recombination. This multi-level parallel processing architecture significantly reduces the loops and repetitive calculations. An efficient rendering pipeline was developed to achieve real-time rendering of 200 viewpoint light field images with anisotropic lighting effects at a 4 K resolution. The frame rate is 40 frames per second (fps). Compared to traditional methods, this algorithm reduces the time required to render one frame of light image by 17 times. A light field display system was made to validate the effectiveness of the method. High performance 3D images were outputted using the rendered light field images.