New Rendering Approach for Composable Volumetric Lenses

Various virtual and augmented reality systems include volumetric lenses, an extension of 2D magic lenses to 3D volumes in which effects are applied to scene elements. We present a new 3D volumetric lens rendering system that differs fundamentally from other approaches and that is the first to address efficient real-time composition of multiple 3D lenses. A lens factory module composes chainable shader programs for rendering composite visual styles and geometry of intersection regions. Geometry is handled by Boolean combinations of region tests in fragment shaders, which allows both convex and non-convex CSG volumes for lens shape. Efficiency is further addressed by a region analyzer module and by broad-phase culling. Finally, we consider the handling of order effects for composed 3D lenses.