Microfacet Billboarding for Image-based Rendering

Rendering of intricately shaped objects that are soft or cluttered is difficult because we cannot accurately acquire their complete geometry. Since their geometry varies drastically, modeling them using fixed facets can lead to severe artifacts when viewed from singular directions. We propose a novel modeling method, microfacet billboarding, which uses view-dependent microfacets with view-dependent textures. The facets discretely approximate the geometry of the object and are aligned perpendicular to the viewing direction. The texture of each facet is selected from the most suitable texture images according to the viewpoint. Microfacet billboarding can render intricate geometry from various viewpoints. We have also implemented a real-time renderer by a hardware-accelerated technique.