Adaptive Mesh Approach for Predicting Algorithm Behavior with Application to Visibility Culling in Computer Graphics

Abstract: We propose a concise approximate description, and a method for efficiently obtaining this description, via adaptive random sampling of the performance (running time, memory consumption, or any other profileable numerical quantity) of a given algorithm on some low-dimensional rectangular grid of inputs. The formal correctness is proven under reasonable assumptions on the algorithm under consideration; and the approach's practical benefit is demonstrated by predicting for which observer positions and viewing directions an occlusion culling algorithm yields a net performance benefit or loss compared to a simple brute force renderer.