OpenGL Insights

Hierarchical Depth Culling and

Bounding-Box Management

on the GPU

Dzmitry Malyshau

18.1 Introduction

Optimizing the data passed to the GPU is one of the keys to achieving high and stable

frame rates. The fewer data that go into a GPU, the b etter the performance. This

is what geometry-culling techniques are for: they reduce the number of fragments,

polygons, or even whole objects processed by the GPU.

There are several common culling methods today [Fernando 04]:

• Frustum culling. On a high level, the graphics engine determines the ob-

jects outside the view frustum and leaves them out of drawing. It generally

uses a bounding-volume approximation (e.g., ...