A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SIGNALING DEPTH OF MULTI-PLANE IMAGES-BASED VOLUMETRIC VIDEO

Methods, apparatus and data stream are described to encode, transmit and decode an atlas-based representation of a 3D scene based on a multiplane image (MPI) representation in which a depth component is encoded in each layer. Layers of the MPI are clustered on a transparency basis to generate texture, transparency and depth patch pictures. Patch pictures are packed in at least one atlas image. Metadata associating each patch to a layer and each layer to a depth and a depth quantization law are encoded in the data stream with the at least one atlas. At the decoding side, the MPI with a depth component is retrieved from the data stream and is used to render a viewport image from a viewpoint in the neighborhood of the center of the MPI.