Streaming a compressed light field

A method comprising:

• receiving compressed light field data for a scene, wherein the compressed light field data is a compressed representation of a portion of a light field computed for the scene that is changed from a prior light field obtained for a previous scene, wherein the light field includes an array of blocks, each block in the array of blocks including color texture information and visibility texture information;
• decompressing the compressed light field data to obtain the portion of the light field for the scene;
• obtaining the light field for the scene by combining the portion of the light field for the scene with the prior light field obtained for the previous scene;
• computing global illumination for the scene, using the light field for the scene.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to:

• receiving compressed light field data for a scene, wherein the compressed light field data is a compressed representation of a portion of a light field computed for the scene that is changed from a prior light field obtained for a previous scene, wherein the light field includes an array of blocks, each block in the array of blocks including color texture information and visibility texture information;
• decompressing the compressed light field data to obtain the portion of the light field for the scene;
• obtaining the light field for the scene by combining the portion of the light field for the scene with the prior light field obtained for the previous scene;
• and
• computing global illumination for the scene, using the light field for the scene.

A system, comprising:

• a non-transitory memory comprising instructions;
• and
• one or more processors in communication with the memory, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to:
• receive compressed light field data for a scene, wherein the compressed light field data is a compressed representation of a portion of a light field computed for the scene that is changed from a prior light field obtained for a previous scene, wherein the light field includes an array of blocks, each block in the array of blocks including color texture information and visibility texture information;
• decompress the compressed light field data to obtain the portion of the light field for the scene;
• obtain the light field for the scene by combining the portion of the light field for the scene with the prior light field obtained for the previous scene;
• and
• compute global illumination for the scene, using the light field for the scene.