Practical Occluder Generation for Mobile Games

Occlusion culling is a cornerstone of real-time rendering, particularly in mobile games where limited GPU bandwidth demands highly efficient scene management. At the heart of occlusion culling lies the use of simplified proxy geometry-called occluders-that approximate scene geometry for rapid visibility testing. However, producing high-quality occluders that are low in polygon count, conservative in coverage, and tightly aligned with the original geometry remains a manual and labor-intensive process. In this paper, we present a fast and fully automated two-stage approach for robust occluder generation tailored to real-world game assets. Our method begins with a novel strategy for inward offset mesh computation, followed by a conservative simplification step leveraging a new variant of Quadric Error Metrics (QEM). This approach effectively handles noisy and topologically complex inputs, generating production-ready occluders in seconds. Extensive experiments on a wide range of asset types demonstrate that our technique achieves aggressive triangle reduction while preserving critical occlusion fidelity. By offering a practical and scalable solution, our method bridges the gap between academic research and demanding needs for game development.