ADAPTIVE VOXEL-BASED ORDER-INDEPENDENT TRANSPARENCY

Rendering transparent objects and effects in real-time with high performance remains a significant challenge in game development. This talk explores the journey of the Call of Duty rendering engine as it transitioned to order-independent transparency (OIT) while supporting active game releases.

Several established algorithms for rendering transparency offer varying trade-offs in accuracy, robustness, and performance. However, none fully met the unique requirements of the Call of Duty franchise’s unique requirements, where visual accuracy is critical for gameplay and performance is paramount. This insight led to the development of a novel OIT technique: Adaptive Voxel-Based Order-Independent Transparency (AVBOIT).
This presentation covers the principles behind AVBOIT, its implementation details, and its performance profile across various hardware platforms. It also evaluates the advantages and limitations of this novel method, providing a balanced perspective on its practical impact. The talk includes a comparative analysis with industry-standard transparency algorithms and discusses practical applications using existing game content, highlighting game-specific challenges and solutions. Finally, it addresses ongoing work and potential future extensions for the method.

This Presentation was first shared at SIGGRAPH's Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games on Tuesday, 12 August 2025.

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