The Clipmap: A Virtual Mipmap

We describe the clipmap, a dynamic texture representation that efficiently caches textures of arbitrarily large size in a finite amount of physical memory for rendering at real-time rates. Further, we describe a software system for managing clipmaps that supports integration into demanding real-time applications. We show the scale and robustness of this integrated hardware/software architecture by reviewing an application virtualizing a 170 gigabyte texture at 60 Hertz. Finally, we suggest ways that other rendering systems may exploit the concepts underlying clipmaps to solve related problems. CR Categories and Subject Descriptors: I.3.1 [Computer Graphics]: Hardware Architecture—Graphics Processors; I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation—Display Algorithms; I.3.4 [Computer Graphics]: Graphics Utilities—Graphics Packages; I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism—Color, shading, shadowing, and texture.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: SIGGRAPH
• Authors: Christopher C. Tanner, Christopher J. Migdal, Michael T. Jones
• Keywords: Computer Graphics, Dynamic Texture Representation, Graphics Utilities—Graphics Packages, SIGGRAPH 1998