Patent 7196711 was granted and assigned to Microsoft on March, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A computer implemented method for generating a representation of structure for use in rendering a synthesized image is provided. The representation is a view-dependent displacement mapping that represents displacements along a viewing direction. This view dependency allows the representation to be used to determine self shadows as well as shading, occlusion and silhouettes when used during rendering for synthesis.