Abstract: The real-time rendering technique of large-scale and complex scenes is the basis of many important applications such as virtual reality, real-time simulation, and 3D interactive design. As one way to accelerate the rendering speed, the research on visibility has gained great attention in recent years. Its aim is to discard invisible geometric objects as many as possible based on given viewing points so that complex scenes or objects can be rendered or transferred through Internet at real time. In this paper, a survey related to this topic is presented. First, some typical visibility algorithms are analyzed in detail. Second, some topics related to visibility research are introduced and the necessary components and steps that a visibility algorithm needs are described. Third, some criteria to evaluate the visibility methods are proposed. Finally, some key techniques that need further research efforts are pointed out.