New volumetric lines method

Hi readers,

I have been working on many things recently. One of these things is a new volumetric line algorithm!
My previous method (basically the same as the one proposed in ShaderX7) was really fast and yields good looking result. I think that's why it was successfully used in the iPhone game PewPew. The only thing about this method is that you should avoid looking lines along their direction because, in this case, the trick I use become visible. Also, it was not possible to shade the line based on its thickness from current viewpoint.
Another method has been proposed by Tristan Lorach to change volumetric lines appearance based on the angle between view and line directions. However, line appearance was represented by only 16 texture tiles and interpolation between them was visible.

The new method I propose is able to render capsule like volumetric lines with any width and for any point of view, i.e. you can look inside/through the line. It also allows the use of thickness based visual effects.

Here is the overall algorithm of my new method:

1. Extrude an OOBB around the volumetric line having the same width as the line. This is done using a geometry shader computing triangles strips from a single line.
2. Compute closest and farthest intersections between view ray and capsule using geometric methods and/or quadratic functions resolution. This is done in the OOBB frame reference.
   
3. Compute thickness based on capsule intersections and environment depth map.
   
4. Shade the volumetric line based on it's thickness.
   

It is pretty simple but efficient. I will not go into the details right now: there will be a post on my website soon. I will just show some early screenshots from the current version:

The capsules representing the volumetric lines
filled with a white color

line radius can be changed


Thickness based shading and intersection with the environment

View from above and under the ground

The thickness is correct,
even if the camera is inside the volumetric lines