Optimized mobile rendering techniques based on local cubemaps

Abstract

Local cubemaps (LC) were introduced for the first time more than ten years ago for rendering reflections [Bjorke 2004]. Nevertheless it is only in recent years that major game engines have incorporated this technique. In this paper we introduce a generalized concept of LC and present two new LC applications for rendering shadows and refractions. We show that limitations associated with the static nature of LC can be overcome by combining this technique with other well-known runtime techniques for reflections and shadows. Rendering techniques based on LC allow high quality shadows, reflections and refractions to be rendered very efficiently which makes them ideally suited to mobile devices where runtime resources must be carefully balanced [Ice Cave Demo 2015].