Vertex Shader Domain Warping with Automatic Differentiation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method for 3D domain warping using automatic differentiation in vertex shaders, enabling precise normal updates without parameter tuning and leveraging hardware acceleration.

Contribution

It presents a new approach that integrates automatic differentiation into vertex shader domain warping, eliminating the need for finite difference tuning for normal updates.

Findings

Exact normals can be computed efficiently during warping.

The method improves visual fidelity without parameter tuning.

Hardware acceleration is maintained during the process.

Abstract

Domain warping is a technique commonly used in creative coding to distort graphics and add visual interest to a work. The approach has the potential to be used in 3D art as mesh vertices can be efficiently warped using a vertex shader in a WebGL pipeline. However, 3D models packaged for the web typically come with baked-in normal vectors, and these need to be updated when vertex positions change for lighting calculations to work. This is typically done via finite differences, which requires parameter tuning to achieve optimal visual fidelity. We present a method for 3D domain warping that works with automatic differentiation, allowing exact normals to be used without any tuning while still benefiting from hardware acceleration.