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Computer Graphics 15: More Surface Detection Methods: Course Website

The document discusses various visible surface detection methods for computer graphics, including: - The depth-sorting method, also known as the painter's method, which sorts surfaces by decreasing depth and scan converts them in order. - Other techniques include BSP-tree, area-subdivision, octree, and ray-casting methods. - The performance of different methods depends on the number of surfaces, with depth sorting and BSP trees performing best for few surfaces, while depth buffer scales best for higher polygon counts.

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Sreehari Viswanathan
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62 views11 pages

Computer Graphics 15: More Surface Detection Methods: Course Website

The document discusses various visible surface detection methods for computer graphics, including: - The depth-sorting method, also known as the painter's method, which sorts surfaces by decreasing depth and scan converts them in order. - Other techniques include BSP-tree, area-subdivision, octree, and ray-casting methods. - The performance of different methods depends on the number of surfaces, with depth sorting and BSP trees performing best for few surfaces, while depth buffer scales best for higher polygon counts.

Uploaded by

Sreehari Viswanathan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Computer Graphics 15: More Surface Detection Methods

Course Website: http://www.comp.dit.ie/bmacnamee

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Contents
Today we will continue to look at visible surface detection methods:
Depth-sorting method Other methods

We will also compare the different techniques we have studied and suggest when different techniques should be employed

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Depth-Sorting Method
A visible surface detection method that uses both image-space and object-space operations Basically, the following two operations are performed
Surfaces are sorted in order of decreasing depth Surfaces are scan-converted in order, starting with the surface of greatest depth

The depth-sorting method is often also known as the painters method

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Depth-Sorting Method (cont)


First, assume that we are viewing along the z direction All surfaces in the scene are ordered according to the smallest z value on each surface The surface S at the end of the list is then compared against all other surfaces to see if there are any depth overlaps If no overlaps occur then the surface is scan converted as before and the process repeats with the next surface

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Depth Overlapping
z z zmax S zmax S

zmax

zmin zmax S zmin

zmin
x

zmin
x

No Depth Overlap

Depth Overlap

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Depth-Sorting Method (cont)


When there is depth overlap, we make the following tests:
The bounding rectangles for the two surfaces do no overlap Surface S is completely behind the overlapping surface relative to the viewing position The overlapping surface is completely in front of S realtive to the viewing position The boundary edge projections of the two surfaces onto the view plane do not overlap

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Depth-Sorting Method (cont)


The tests are performed in the order listed and as soon as one is true we move on to the next surface If all tests fail then we swap the orders of the surfaces

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Other Techniques
There are a number of other techniques all based around are division
BSP-Tree Method Area-Subdivision Method Octree Methods

Raycastig can also be used

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Ray-Casting

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Comparison Of Visibility-Detection Methods


When few surfaces are present either the depth sorting algorithm or the BSP tree method tend to perform best Scan-line also performs well in these situations up to a several thousand polygon surfaces The depth buffer method tends to scale linearly, so that for low numbers of polygons its performance is poor, but it is used for higher numbers of polygons.

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Summary
We need to make sure that we only draw visible surfaces when rendering scenes

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