Coverage Bitmasks for Efficient Rendering Algorithms

Written and presented by SEED’s Martin Mittring. Watch the video and download the presentation deck below.

Coverage Bitmasks for Efficient Rendering Algorithms

Download the presentation deck and notes. (14 MB PDF)

This presentation gives the humble old bitmask the attention it deserves.

Bitmasks have been part of parallel hardware implementations without really being called out. They have been disguised under various names: Coverage / Visibility / Occupancy / Occlusion / Blocker [bit] masks. They enable efficient rasterization, soft shadows, antialiasing, AO, GI, OIT, can speed up ray tracing, and more.

In this presentation, we go over where they have been used creatively and where they can be used. We explore their properties and show why they are becoming even more relevant for more GPU programmability and machine learning. They are a tool you can use to cull work efficiently and they combine well with stochastic algorithms.