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We have already seen many of the benefits of the silhouette map textures. First of all, we just showed how they are a space-efficient representation. In addition, because we only store one point in each cell and the silhouette map cells are a based on a uniform grid, they offer constant-time lookup and bounded complexity. Silhouette maps provide a piecewise linear approximation to the texture function, as opposed to the piecewise-constant function of a standard texture. Thus, they converge quicker to the "true" texture function as resolution increases than the standard texture. Finally, it's fairly easy to create content either through editing tools or automated processes.

As presented at SIGGRAPH/EUROGRAPHICS Graphics Hardware 2004
by Pradeep Sen on August 30, 2004