The Problem Of Scan Conversion

A line segment in a scene is defined by the

coordinate positions of the line end-points

(7, 5)

(2, 2)

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Bangalore
 The Problem
When drawn on a pixel based display . Which
pixel has to be chosen?

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Bangalore
Points to be considered
 Line should not be jarred
 It should be fast

Line equation
The slope intercept form of a line is
y=m.x+b
Where m=y2-y1/x2-x1
b=y-m.x

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Bangalore
 Lines & Slopes
The slope of a line (m) is defined by its start
and end coordinates
The diagram below shows some examples of

lines and their slopes

m=∞
m = -4 m=4
m = -2 m=2
m = -1 m=1

m = -1/2 m = 1/2
m = -1/ 3 m = 1/3

m=0 m=0
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Let’s consider the following example:
y

(7, 5)
5

2
(2, 2)

x
2 7

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Bangalore
y
(7, 5) First work out m and b:
5

52 3
m 
2
72 5
(2, 2)
3 4
b  2 2 
2 3 4 5 6 7
x 5 5
Now for each x value work out the y value:
3 4 3 3 4 1
y (3)   3   2 y (4)   4   3
5 5 5 5 5 5
3 4 4 3 4 2
y (5)   5   3 y (6)   6   4
5 5 5 5 5 5
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6
Round off the results.

3
7 y (3)  2  3
6 5
5 1
4
y (4)  3  3
5
3
4
2 y (5)  3  4
1 5
0 2
y ( 6)  4  4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 5
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 The approach is slow
 Multiplication of m,x
 Rounding of y value

Alternate solution
x=y-b/m

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Bangalore
X(3)=2,x(4)=5

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 1 2
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3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Bangalore
Ifthe slope of a line is between -1 and 1 then we
work out the y coordinates for a line based on it’s
unit x coordinates
Otherwise we do the opposite – x coordinates are

computed based on unit y coordinates

m = -4 m=∞
m=4
m = -2 m=2
m = -1 m=1

m = -1 / 2
m = 1/ 2
m = -1/3 m = 1/ 3

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m=0 Bangalore m=0
 The DDA Algorithm
The digital differential
analyzer (DDA) algorithm
takes an incremental
approach in order to speed
up scan conversion
Simply calculate yk+1 based The original differential
on yk analyzer was a physical
machine developed by
Vannevar Bush at MIT in
the 1930’s in order to
solve ordinary differential
equations.

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Consider the list of points that we determined
for the line in our previous example:
 (2, 2), (3, 23/ ), (4, 31/ ), (5, 34/ ), (6, 42/ ),
5 5 5 5
(7, 5)
Notice that as the x coordinates go up by one,

the y coordinates simply go up by the slope of

the line
This is the key insight in the DDA algorithm

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When the slope of the line is between -1 and 1
begin at the first point in the line and, by
incrementing the x coordinate by 1, calculate the
corresponding y coordinates as follows:
yk 1  yk  m
When the slope is outside these limits, increment
the y coordinate by 1 and calculate the
corresponding x coordinates as follows:
1
xk 1  xk 
m
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 The DDA Algorithm (cont…)
Again the values calculated by the equations
used by the DDA algorithm must be rounded to
match pixel values

(xk+1, round(yk+m)) (round(xk+ 1/m), yk+1)

(xk, yk) (xk+ 1/m, yk+1)

(xk+1, yk+m) (xk, yk)

(xk, round(yk)) (round(xk), yk)

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 Try out the following
◦ A(2,2) B(7,5)
◦ C(3,2),D(2,7)

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 The DDA Algorithm Summary
The DDA algorithm is much faster than
previous attempt
◦ In particular, there are no longer any multiplications
involved
However, there are still two big issues:
◦ Accumulation of round-off errors can make the
pixelated line drift away from what was intended.
◦ The rounding operations and floating point
arithmetic involved are time consuming.

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Bangalore
The Bresenham Line Algorithm
The Bresenham algorithm is
another incremental scan
conversion algorithm
The big advantage of this

algorithm is that it uses only

integer calculations

Jack Bresenham
worked for 27 years at
IBM before entering
academia. Bresenham
developed his famous
algorithms at IBM in
the early 1960s
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 The Big Idea
Move across the x axis in unit intervals and at
each step choose between two different y
coordinates
For example, from
5
(xk+1, yk+1)
position (2, 3) we
4
have to choose
(xk, yk) between (3, 3) and
3 (3, 4)
(xk+1, yk)
2
We would like the
point that is closer
2 3 4 5
to the original line
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18
 Deriving The Bresenham Line
Algorithm
At sample position x +1
k y k+1
the vertical separations dupper
from the mathematical y
dlower
line are labelled dupper yk

and dlower xk+1

The y coordinate on the mathematical line
at xk+1 is:
y  m( xk  1)  b
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So, dupper and dlower are given as follows:
d 
yy
lowerk

and:
m
(x
k1
)b
y
k

d(
y1
upper
k 
)y

y
k
1
m
(
x
k1
)b

We can use these to make a simple decision

about which pixel is closer to the mathematical
line
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Thissimple decision is based on the difference
between the two pixel positions:

d lower  d upper  2m( xk  1)  2 yk  2b  1


Let’s substitute m with ∆y/∆x where ∆x and
∆y are the differences between the end-points:

y
x(d lower  d upper )  x(2 ( xk  1)  2 yk  2b  1)
x
 2y  xk  2x  yk  2y  x(2b  1)

 2y  xk  2x  yk  c
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So,a decision parameter pk for the kth step
along a line is given by:
pk  x(d lower  d upper )
 2y  xk  2x  yk  c
The sign of the decision parameter pk is the
same as that of dlower – dupper
If pk is negative, then we choose the lower
pixel, otherwise we choose the upper pixel

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Remember coordinate changes occur along the
x axis in unit steps so we can do everything
with integer calculations
At step k+1 the decision parameter is given as:


pk 1  2y  xk 1  2x  yk 1  c
Subtracting pk from this we get:

pk 1  pk  2y ( xk 1  xk )  2x( yk 1  yk )
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But, xk+1 is the same as xk+1 so:
pk 1  pk  2y  2x( yk 1  yk )
where yk+1 - yk is either 0 or 1 depending on
the sign of pk
The first decision parameter p0 is evaluated at
(x0, y0) is given as:
p0  2y  x

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The Bresenham Line Algorithm
BRESENHAM’S LINE DRAWING ALGORITHM
(for |m| < 1.0)
1. Input the two line end-points, storing the left end-
point in (x0, y0)
2. Plot the point (x0, y0)
3. Calculate the constants Δx, Δy, 2Δy, and (2Δy - 2Δx)
and get the first value for the decision parameter
as: p0  2y  x

4. At each xk along the line, starting at k = 0, perform

the following test. If pk < 0, the next point to plot is
pk 1  pk  2y
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 Otherwise, the next point to plot is (xk+1, yk+1) and:
pk 1  pk  2y  2x
5. Repeat step 4 (Δx – 1) times

ACHTUNG! The algorithm and derivation above

assumes slopes are less than 1. for other slopes
we need to adjust the algorithm slightly

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 Bresenham Example
Plot the line from (20, 10) to (30, 18)
First off calculate all of the constants:

◦ Δx: 10
◦ Δy: 8
◦ 2Δy: 16
◦ 2Δy - 2Δx: -4
Calculate the initial decision parameter p0:
◦ p0 = 2Δy – Δx = 6

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Bangalore
 Bresenham Example (cont…)
18 k pk (xk+1,yk+1)

17 0

16 1
2
15
3
14
4
13 5
12 6

11 7
8
10
9
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 B.Tulasi,
27 Dept 28 Of CS,Christ
29 30 University 28
Bangalore
 Bresenham Exercise
Go through the steps of the Bresenham line
drawing algorithm for a line going from (21,12)
to (29,16)

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Bangalore
Bresenham Line Algorithm Summary
The Bresenham line algorithm has the
following advantages:
◦ An fast incremental algorithm
◦ Uses only integer calculations
Comparing this to the DDA algorithm, DDA has
the following problems:
◦ Accumulation of round-off errors can make the
pixelated line drift away from what was intended
◦ The rounding operations and floating point
arithmetic involved are time consuming

B.Tulasi, Dept Of CS,Christ University 30

Bangalore