Computing the visibility map of fat objects

We give an output-sensitive algorithm for computing the visibility map of a set of n constant-complexity convex fat polyhedra or curved objects in 3-space. Our algorithm runs in O((n+k)polylogn) time, where k is the combinatorial complexity of the visibility map. This is the first algorithm for computing the visibility map of fat objects that does not require a depth order on the objects and is faster than the best known algorithm for general objects. It is also the first output-sensitive algorithm for curved objects that does not require a depth order.