Graphics

Chapter 6: Basic
Rendering

CGVR

Scene Definitions
Camera

View Frustrum

View Plane
Objects/Models

Rendering

CGVR

Rendering is the process of generating an image from a 2D or 3D

model (or models in what collectively could be called a scene file)
A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data
structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting,
and shading information as a description of the virtual scene.
The data contained in the scene file is then passed to a rendering
program to be processed and output to a digital image or raster
graphics image file.
The term "rendering" may be by analogy with an "artist's rendering"
of a scene.
Rendering has uses in architecture, video games, simulators,
movie or TV visual effects, and design visualization, each
employing a different balance of features and techniques.

Basics of Rendering

Pipeline Based Rendering

CGVR

Objects in the scene are rendered in a sequence of

steps that form the Rendering Pipeline.

Ray-Tracing

A series of rays are projected thru the view plane and

the view plane is colored based on the object that the
ray strikes

Pipeline Rendering

CGVR

Transform
Illuminate
Transform
Clip
Project
Rasterize

Model & Camera

Parameters

Rendering Pipeline

Framebuffer

Display

Rendering: Transformations

CGVR

So far, discussion has been in screen space

But model is stored in model space
(a.k.a. object space or world space)
Three sets of geometric transformations:

Modeling transforms
Viewing transforms
Projection transforms

POLYGON-RENDERING METHODS
Constant-intensity rendering aka flat surface
rendering:
Determine color for center of polygon;
Fill the polygon with a constant color.
Ok if:
Object consists of planar faces, and
Light sources are far away, and
Eye point is far away,
or
Polygons are about a pixel in size.

CGVR

Rendering polygons
Constant-intensity rendering aka flat surface rendering:
Determine color for center of polygon;
Fill the polygon with a constant color.

Highlights not visible,

Facetted appearance, increased by Mach banding effect.

CGVR

Constant-Intensity Shading

CGVR

Flat Shading

A fast and simple method

Assign all pixels inside each polygon same color
N2

Figure.

N1

N4

N3

The normal vector at

vertex V calculated as the
average of the surface
normals for each polygon
sharing that vertex

Constant-Intensity Shading

CGVR

Example 1)
Image with flat shading

Gouraud surface rendering

CGVR

Determine average normal on vertices;

Determine color for vertices;
Interpolate the colors per polygon (incrementally).
N2
N3

N1
N4

NV

n
k 1
n
k 1

Nk
Nk

Gouraud Shading

CGVR

Gouraud surface rendering

CGVR

Much better result for curved surfaces

Errors near highlights
Linear interpolation still gives Mach banding
Silhouettes are still not smooth

Gouraud

Flat

Gouraud Shading

CGVR

Example 2)
Image with Gouraud
shading and specular
highlights.

Phong surface rendering

Determine average normal per vertex;

Interpolate normals per polygon (incrementally);
Calculate color per pixel.

CGVR

Phong surface rendering

CGVR

Phong surface rendering

CGVR

Even better result for curved surfaces

No errors at high lights
No Mach banding
Silhouettes remain coarse
More expensive than flat or Gouraud shading

Phong Shading

CGVR

Example 3)
Image with Phong
shading and specular
highlights.

Comparision

Flat shading
The simplest shading method
Difference of two shading models
Phong shading is more accurate way of shading a polygon
since the illumination model is applied to every point
More computationally intensive than the Gouraud
Illumination model is applied more often
Interpolated normals need to be normalized

CGVR

Rendering polygons - Comparison

Flat

Gouraud

Phong

CGVR

Comparision

a) Flat shading

b) Gouraud shading

CGVR

c) Phong shading

Ray Tracing Methods

CGVR

In computer graphics, ray tracing is a technique for

generating an image by tracing the path of light through
pixels in an image plane and simulating the effects of its
encounters with virtual objects.
One of the shading method
To create several kinds of effects
Very difficult or even impossible to do with other
methods
Include three items
Reflection
Transparency
Shadow

Forward and Backward Ray

tracing

CGVR

Forward Ray Tracing

Forward ray tracing follows the light particles (photons) from the light source to the object.
Although forward ray tracing can most accurately determine the coloring of each object, it is
highly inefficient. This is because many rays from the light source never come through the
viewplane and into the eye. Tracking every light ray from the light source down means that
many rays will go to waste because they never contribute to the final image as seen from the
eye. Forward ray tracing is also known as light ray tracing and photon tracing.
Backward Ray Tracing
To make ray tracing more efficient, the method of backward ray tracing is introduced. In
backward ray tracing, an eye ray is created at the eye; it passes through the viewplane and on
into the world. The first object the eye ray hits is the object that will be visible from that
point of the viewplane. After the ray tracer allows that light ray to bounce around, it figures
out the exact coloring and shading of that point in the viewplane and displays it on the
corresponding pixel on the computer monitor screen. Backward ray tracing is also known as
eye ray tracing.

CGVR

CGVR

CGVR

Basic Ray-Tracing Algorithm

CGVR

Basic Ray-Tracing Algorithm

CGVR

For each pixel ray

Test each surface if it is intersected

Intersected
Calculated the distance from the pixel to the surface intersection
point
The smallest value is visible
surface for that pixel

Reflection ray

Secondary ray
Along specular path

Transparent

Send a ray through the surface

in the refraction direction
Figure. Ray Tracing

Basic Ray-Tracing Algorithm

Each secondary ray (reflection or refraction ray)

Repeated the same procedure

Objects are tested for intersection

The nearest surface along secondary ray path is used to
recursively production the next generation of reflection and
refraction path

Ray tracing tree

Each successively intersected

surface is added to a binary raytracing tree

Figure. Ray Tracing

CGVR

Ray-Tracing Tree

Left branch Reflection

Right branch Transmission
Terminated

CGVR

Reach the preset maximum

Strike a light source

Pixel intensity

Sum of intensities at root node

Start at terminal node
Background intensity

If tree is empty

Figure. Ray Trace and Ray-Tracing tree

Reducing Object-Intersection
Calculation

Ray surface intersection calculation

CGVR

95 percent of the processing time in a ray tracer

Spent most of processing time checking objects that are not
visible along the ray path

Enclose groups of adjacent objects within a bounding

volume
Check larger boundary volume and ,if necessary,
smaller boundary volume; and so on.

Space-Subdivision Method

The other way to reduce intersection calculation

Enclose a scene within a cube
Uniform subdivision (a)

CGVR

Subdivided the cube into eight equal-size octants at

each step

Adaptive subdivision (b)

Only subdivided cube containing objects

Example - b

Example - a

Anti-aliased Ray Tracing

Two basic techniques

Supersampling
The pixel is treated as a finite square area instead of a single
point

Adaptive sampling
Uses unevenly spaced rays in some reason of the pixel area
Ex. More rays can be used near object edges to obtains a
better estimate of the pixel intensities

CGVR

Affine transformations

CGVR

Affine transformation is a linear mapping method that

preserves points, straight lines, and planes. Sets of
parallel lines remain parallel after an affine
transformation. The affine transformation technique is
typically used to correct for geometric distortions or
deformations that occur with non-ideal camera angles.
An affine transformation does not necessarily preserve
angles between lines or distances between points,
though it does preserve ratios of distances between
points lying on a straight line.

Affine transformations

CGVR

In order to incorporate the idea that both the basis and

the origin can change, we augment the linear space u, v
with an origin t.
Note that while u and v are basis vectors (linear
independent), the origin t is a point.
We call u, v, and t (basis and origin) a frame for an
affine space.
Then, we can represent a change of frame as:

p x u y v t

This change of frame is also known as an affine

transformation.
How do
we write an affine transformation with matrices?

Homogeneous Coordinates

CGVR
To represent transformations among affine frames, we can loft
the problem up into 3-space, adding a third component to every
point:
p Mp

a b t x x

c d t y y
0 0 1 1
x

u v t y
1
x u y v 1 t

Note that [a c 0]T and [b d 0]T represent vectors and

[tx ty 1]T, [x y
1]T and [x' y' 1]T represent points.

2D Affine Transformations

An affine transformation is one that can be

written in the form:

x a xx x a xy y bx
y a yx x a yy y by
or

x a xx a xy x bx
y a a y b
yx yy y

CGVR

Why Affine Transformations?

CGVR

Affine transformations are linear

Transforming all the individual points on a line gives

the same set of points as transforming the endpoints
and joining them
Interpolation is the same in either space: Find the
halfway point in one space, and transform it. Will get
the same result if the endpoints are transformed and
then find the halfway point

Composition of Affine
Transforms

CGVR

Any affine transformation can be composed as

a sequence of simple transformations:

Translation
Scaling
Rotation
Shear
Reflection

Visible Surface Detection

CGVR

Two main types of algorithms:

Object space: Determine which part of the object
are visible
Image space: Determine per pixel which point of an
object is visible

Object space

Image space

Visibility and Occlusion

CGVR

For most interesting scenes, some polygons will

overlap:

To render the correct image, we need to

determine which polygons occlude which

Depth-Buffer Method

CGVR

Compares surface depth values throughout a

scene for each pixel position on the projection
plane
Usually applied to scenes only containing
polygons
As depth values can be computed easily, this
tends to be very fast
Also often called the z-buffer method

Characteristics

CGVR

Commonly used image-space approach

Compares depths of each pixel on the projection plane

Referred to as the z-buffer method

Usually applied to scenes of polygonal surfaces

Depth values can be computed very quickly

Easy to implement

Depth-Buffer Method (cont)

CGVR

Depth Buffer & Refresh Buffer

CGVR

Two buffer areas are required

Depth buffer

Store depth values for each (x, y) position

All positions are initialized to minimum depth

Usually 0 most distant depth from the viewplane

Z value is normalized between 0 and 1. Z = 0 means most

distance object and z=1 means least distance.

Alternatively z can be ranges from 0 to some maximum

value that can be stored in the system

Refresh buffer

Stores the intensity values for each position

All positions are initialized to the background intensity

Algorithm

Initialize the depth buffer and refresh buffer

depth(x, y) = 0,

refresh(x, y) = Ibackgnd

For each position on each polygon surface

CGVR

Calculate the depth for each (x, y) position on the polygon

If z > depth(x, y), then set
depth(x, y) = z,
refresh(x, y) = Isurf(x, y)

Advanced

With resolution of 1024 by 1024

Over a million positions in the depth buffer

Process one section of the scene at a time

Need a smaller depth buffer

The buffer is reused for the next section

46

Iterative Calculations (cont)

CGVR

top scan line

y scan line
y - 1 scan line

bottom scan line

Depth-Buffer Algorithm

CGVR

1.

Initialise the depth buffer and frame buffer so

that for all buffer positions (x, y)

depthBuff(x, y) = 0.0 (i.e. most

distance)
frameBuff(x, y) = bgColour

Depth-Buffer Algorithm
(cont)
2.

CGVR

Process each polygon in a scene, one at a time

For each projected (x, y) pixel position of a

polygon, calculate the depth z (if not already
known)
If z > depthBuff(x, y), compute the surface colour at
that position and set (Normalize it as larger the z
value nearer the object)
depthBuff(x, y) = z
frameBuff(x, y) = surfColour(x, y)

After all surfaces are processed depthBuff and

frameBuff will store correct values

Calculating Depth

CGVR

At any surface position the depth is calculated

from the plane equation as:

Ax By D
z
C

For any scan line adjacent

x positions differ by

1, as do adjacent y positions

A( x 1) By D
z'
C

A
z' z
C

Iterative Calculations

CGVR

The depth-buffer algorithm proceeds by starting

at the top vertex of the polygon

Then we recursively calculate the x-coordinate

values down a left edge of the polygon

The x value for the beginning position on each

scan line can be calculated from the previous
one

1
x' x
m

where m is the slope

Iterative Calculations (cont)

CGVR

Depth values along the edge being considered

are calculated using (x = x -1/m, y=y-1)

A B
z' z m
C

If we are processing down a vertical edge, the

slope is infinite and the recursive calculation
reduce to

B
z' z
C

Z Buffer Algorithm

CGVR

Advantages
It is easy to implement.
It reduces the speed problem if implemented in
hardware.
It processes one object at a time.
Disadvantages
It requires large memory.
It is time consuming process.

Depth Sorting (Painters Algorithm)

Image-space and object-space operations

CGVR

Sorting operations in both image and object-space

The scan conversion of polygon surfaces in imagespace

Basic functions

Surfaces are sorted in order of decreasing depth

Surfaces are scan-converted in order, starting with
the surface of greatest depth

Painting

CGVR

The distant mountains are painted first, followed by the closer meadows; finally, the
trees, are painted.

Overlapping polygons
can cause the algorithm
to fail

Algorithm

Referred to as the painters algorithm

In creating an oil painting

CGVR

First paints the background colors

The most distant objects are added
Then the nearer objects, and so forth
Finally, the foregrounds are painted over all objects

Each layer of paint covers up the previous layer

Process

Sort surfaces according to their distance from the viewplane

The intensities for the farthest surface are then entered into the
refresh buffer
Taking each succeeding surface in decreasing depth order

CGVR

CGVR

In First Image: Surface S and S are not overlapping on Z axis. So first

Surface S will be painted and then S
In Second Image: Depth overlapping occur and Depth sorting is
required

CGVR

Depth-sort algorithm

Ambiguities arise when the z-extents of two

surfaces overlap.
z

surface 2
surface 1

Depth-sort algorithm

CGVR

All polygons whose z extents overlap must be tested against

each other.
We start with the furthest polygon and call it S. Polygon S
must be compared with every polygon S whose z extent
overlaps S's z extent. 4 comparisons are made. If any
comparison is true then S can be written before S. If at least
one comparison is true for each of the S then S is drawn and
the next polygon from the back is chosen as the new S.

Depth-sort algorithm

CGVR

X or Y - extents not
overlap?
z

if they do, test fails

Depth-sort algorithm

CGVR

Is P entirely behind the surface Q relative to

the viewing position (i.e., behind Qs plane
with respect to the viewport)?

S
S

Test is true
x

Depth-sort algorithm

CGVR

Is Q entirely in front of P's plane relative to

the viewing position (i.e., the viewport)?

Test is true
S
x

Depth-sort algorithm

CGVR

Do the projections of P and Q onto the (x,y)

plane not overlap?

S
zv

xv

Test is true

Depth-sort algorithm

CGVR

If all tests fail

then reverse P and Q in the list of surfaces sorted

by maximum depth

set a flag to say that the test has been performed

once.

If the tests fail a second time, then it is necessary to

split the surfaces and repeat the algorithm on the 4
new split surfaces

Overlapping Tests

CGVR

Tests for each surface that overlaps with S

The bounding rectangle in the xy plane for the two surfaces do

not overlap (1)
Easy
Surface S is completely behind the overlapping surface relative
to the viewing position (2)
The overlapping surface is completely in front of S relative to the
viewing position (3)
The projections of the two surfaces onto the viewplane do not
overlap (4)

Difficult

If all the surfaces pass at least one of the tests, none of

them is behind S

No reordering is then necessary and S is scan converted

Overlapping Test Examples

CGVR

S
S
(1)

zv

xv

zv

xv

(4)

xv

S
zv

(2)

S
(3)

xv

zv

Surface Reordering

CGVR

If all four tests fail with S

Interchange surfaces S and S in the sorted list

Repeat the tests for each surface that is reordered in
the list

zv

<S S>

xv

zv

xv
<S S, then S S>

Drawback

CGVR

If two or more surfaces alternately obscure

each other

Infinite loop
Flag any surface that has been reordered to a
farther depth

It cant be moved again

If an attempt to switch the surface a second time

Divide it into two parts to eliminate the cyclic loop

The original surface is then replaced by the two new
surfaces

Painters Algorithm
Advantages of Painters Algorithm
Simple
Easy transparency

Disadvantages
Have to sort first
Need to split polygons to solve cyclic and intersecting objects

CGVR