Triplanar Displacement Mapping for Terrain Rendering

Abstract

Heightmap-based terrain representations are common in computer games and simulations. However, adding geometric details to such a representation during rendering on the GPU is difficult to achieve. In this paper, we propose a combination of triplanar mapping, displacement mapping, and tessellation on the GPU, to create extruded geometry along steep faces of heightmap-based terrain fields on-the-fky during rendering. The method allows rendering geometric details such as overhangs and boulders, without explicit triangulation. We further demonstrate how to handle collisions and shadows for the enriched geometry.