Fuhrmann, Anton L.Umlauf, EikeMantler, StephanPierre Poulin and Eric Galin2014-01-272014-01-2720053-905673-29-01816-0867https://doi.org/10.2312/NPH/NPH05/057-066Models of large forest scenes are of a geometric complexity that surpasses even the capabilities of current high end graphics hardware. We propose an extreme simplification method which allows us to render such scenes in realtime. Our work is an extension of the image based-simplification method of Billboard Clouds. We automatically generate tree model representations of 15-50 textured polygons. In this paper, we focus on the algorithmic details to improve the simplification process for foliage. We use the simplified models as static levels-of-detail in the medium to far field and demonstrate how our approach yields real-time rendering of dense forest scenes for walkthroughs and flyovers.Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Curve, surface, solid, and object representations; I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Geometric algorithms, languages, and systems; I.3.8 [Computer Graphics]: Applications -- Real-time visualization