Self-Shadowing Bump Map Using 3D Texture Hardware

Self-shadowing bumpmaps add realism and depth to scenes and provide important visual cues. Previous techniques have shown self-shadowing at interactive rates, but at a substantial cost over standard normal mapped bump mapping. This paper uses volume textures on consumer graphics hardware, using few enough resources that they can be easily added to existing normal map bump mapping renderers. Also explored are the ways the technique can be scaled according to available memory constraints.