Summary: 9 January 2026 deadline; at most 16 pages + references (shorter submissions are welcome); anonymous submission; submission link https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=i3d2026

In a few weeks, we will also open submissions for posters on similar topics, so stay tuned for that if you would like to participate with smaller works.

The ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games (I3D) is the leading conference for real-time 3D computer graphics and human interaction. The symposium brings together researchers, engineers, and industry professionals to discuss their latest work on real-time and interactive computer graphics and related applications. The symposium has a long legacy of innovative and excellent technical content, with influential work on rendering, texture synthesis, collision detection, VR interaction, animation, and many other areas of real-time computer graphics, having been presented at the conference.

We invite you to submit papers about real-time 3D graphics, interaction, and games. All accepted papers will be published in PACMCGIT Issue I3D 2026 and presented at I3D 2026 in May 2026, which is sponsored by ACM SIGGRAPH.

Submissions from industry and outside of academia are welcome. Topics include, but are not limited to:

Real-time rendering
Real-time ray tracing and path tracing
Physics-based animation
Virtual and augmented reality
Learning-based methods for interactive graphics and simulation
Collision detection
Real-time computer vision
Navigation in virtual environments
Texture synthesis
Real-time post-processing effects
Interactive 3D modeling
In-the-wild 3D reconstruction
Level-of-detail approaches
Pre-computed lighting for real-time applications
Visibility computation
Real-time surface shading
Fast shadows, caustics and reflections
Image-based rendering techniques
Motion synthesis and path planning
Character and crowd animation and simulation techniques
Interaction devices and techniques
User studies of interactive techniques
How visuals affect gaming experience
How visuals and delay impact game and esports performance
Procedural content generation for games
Sketch-based 3D modeling and design
Video game techniques and game AI
Content generation techniques for real-time applications

Submission Information

Research papers should be in ACM conference format using the ACM small trim journal size (“acmsmall”). They should contain at most sixteen (16) pages of content, including appendices but excluding references. Optional supplemental material does not count towards this limit. Videos are required for techniques involving motion or animation.

There is a single track for paper submission, and authors will be asked to present a 15-20 minute talk on each accepted paper at the conference. At least one (1) author from each accepted paper must register for the conference. Papers without in-person presenters may not be published.

Papers must be submitted anonymously and will be evaluated by double-blind peer review from an international paper committee of published authors and tertiary reviewers. There is no rebuttal process. The submission system link is: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=i3d2026

Papers go through a two-round review process. If papers are accepted after the first review round, all mandatory changes must be passed in a second round of peer review by the primary reviewer.

By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects. Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.

Please ensure that you and your co-authors obtain an ORCID ID, so you can complete the publishing process for your accepted paper. ACM has been involved in ORCID from the start and we have recently made a commitment to collect ORCID IDs from all of our published authors. We are committed to improving author discoverability, ensuring proper attribution, and contributing to ongoing community efforts around name normalization; your ORCID ID will help in these efforts.
Important update on ACM’s new open access publishing model for 2026 ACM Conferences!

Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access. All ACM publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access. Authors will have two primary options for publishing Open Access articles with ACM: the ACM Open institutional model or by paying Article Processing Charges (APCs). With over 2,700+ institutions already part of ACM Open and with more institutions joining from around the world every week, the majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences (currently, around 75% on average across all ACM-sponsored conferences).

Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open will need to pay an APC to publish their papers, unless they qualify for a geographic or discretionary financial hardship waiver. To find out whether an APC applies to your article, please consult the list of participating institutions in ACM Open and review the Policy on Geographic APC Waivers and Discounts Policy and the Policy on Discretionary APC Waivers. Keep in mind that discretionary waivers are rare and are granted based on specific criteria set by ACM. Simply sending a message to ACM indicating an inability to pay an APC is typically an insufficient justification for such a waiver. Waivers are based on the specific circumstances of the author(s) requesting the waiver. ACM does take seriously into consideration the institutional affiliation of the authors and whether it is a reasonable expectation that their institution should be joining the ACM Open program. This is necessary for the long-term financial sustainability of the ACM Open model.

To support a smooth transition and encourage broader ACM Open participation, ACM has approved a temporary subsidy on APC pricing for 2026. The subsidy will offer:
Authors No ACM or SIG members At least 1 ACM or SIG member
ACM and SIG Sponsored Conference Article $350 $250
From a lower-middle-income country $175 $125

This represents a 65% discount off the regular APC list prices, funded directly by ACM. Authors are encouraged to help advocate for their institutions to join ACM Open during this transition period. This temporary subsidized pricing will apply to all conferences scheduled for 2026.
Important Dates

All deadlines are 23:59 Pacific Time (UTC -7).

9 January 2026 Paper submission deadline
20 February 2026 Notification of committee decisions
13 March 2026 Revision deadline for conditionally accepted papers
31 March 2026 PACM CGIT camera-ready deadline for accepted papers
13-15 May 2026 Conference

All questions about paper submissions should be emailed to papers@i3dsymposium.org.

Markus Billeter and Benjamin Watson
Papers Co-Chairs I3D 2026