What is Line
A line, or straight line, is, roughly speaking, (infinitely) thin,
(infinitely) long, straight geometrical object, i.e. a curve that is
long and straight.
Line Cont…
Given two points, in Euclidean geometry, one can
always find exactly one line that passes through the two
points.
Line Cont…
A line may have three forms with respect to slope:
slope = 1
slope > 1
slope < 1
Line Cont…
figure (a) figure (b) figure (c)
Line Drawing Techniques
There are three techniques to be discussed to draw a line
involving different time complexities that will be discussed
along. These techniques are:
Incremental line algorithm
DDA line algorithm
Bresenham line algorithm
Incremental Line Algorithm
This algorithm exploits simple line equation
y=mx+b
where m = dy / dx
and b=y–mx
now check if
|m| < 1 then
x = x + 1 whereas
y=mx+b
why to check |m|
suppose a line has points
p1 (10, 10) – p2 (20, 18)
dy = y2 – y1 = 18 – 10 = 8
dx = x2 – x1 = 20 – 10 = 10
This means that there will be 10 pixels on the line in which for
x-axis there will be distance of 1 between each pixel and for
y-axis the distance will be 0.8.
Now consider the reverse case
suppose a line has points
p1 (10, 10) , p2 (16, 20)
dy = y2 – y1 = 20 – 10 = 10
dx = x2 – x1 = 16 – 10 = 6
This means that there will be 10 pixels on the line in which for
x-axis there will be distance of 0.6 between each pixel and for
y-axis the distance will be 1.
Now sum-up all discussion in algorithm to fully understand.
The algorithm will take two points P1 and P2 and draw line
between them whereas each point consists of x,y
coordinates.
dx = p2.x – p1. x
dy = p2.y – p1. y
m = dy / dx
x = p1.x
y = p1.y
b=y–m*x
if |m| < 1
for counter = p1.x to p2.x
drawPixel (x, y)
x=x+1
y=m*x+b
else
for counter = p1.y to p2.y
drawPixel (x, y)
y=y+1
x=(y–b)/m
Discussion on algorithm:
quite simple and easy to understand
but involves a lot of mathematical calculations 24
We have another algorithm that works fine in all directions
and involves less calculations; mostly only additions.
DDA Algorithm
DDA abbreviated for digital differential analyzer has a very
simple technique.
Find difference, dx and dy as:
dy = y2 – y1
dx = x2 – x1
if |dx| > |dy| then
step = |dx|
else
step = |dy|
Now very simple to say that step is the total number of pixels
required for a line.
Next step is to find xIncrement and yIncrement:
xIncrement = dx/step
yIncrement = dy/step
Next a loop is required that will run ‘step’ times.
In the loop drawPixel and add xIncrement to x1 and
yIncrement to y1.
Now sum-up all above in the algorithm:
DDA_Line (Point p1, Point p2)
dx = p2.x – p1. x
dy = p2.y – p1. y
x1=p1.x
y1=p1.y
if |dx| > |dy| then
step = |dx|
else
step = |dy|
xIncrement = dx/step
yIncrement = dy/step
for counter = 1 to step
drawPixel (x1, y1)
x1 = x1 + xIncrement
y1 = y1 + yIncrement
Criticism on Algorithm:
Use of floating point calculation
An algorithm based on integer type calculations is likely to be
more efficient
Therefore, after some effort, finally we came up with an
algorithm called “Bresenham Line Drawing Algorithm”
which would be discussed next.
Bresenham Algorithm
Bresenham's algorithm finds the closest integer
coordinates to the actual line, using only integer math.
Assuming that the slope is positive and less than 1,
moving 1 step in the x direction, y either stays the same,
or increases by 1. A decision function is required to
resolve this choice.
d1 = y – yi
= m * (xi+1)+b – yi
d2 = yi + 1 – y
= yi + 1 – m ( xi + 1 ) – b
pi = dx (d1-d2)
pi = dx (2m * (xi+1) + 2b – 2yi –1 )
pi = 2dy (xi+1) – 2dx yi + dx (2b–1 ) ------
---------------- (i)
pi = 2 dy xi – 2 dx yi + k ---------------- (ii)
where k = 2 dy + dx (2b-1)
Then we can calculate pi+1 in terms of pi without any xi , yi or
k.
pi+1 = 2 dy xi+1 – 2 dx yi+1 + k
pi+1 = 2 dy (xi + 1) – 2 dx yi+1 + k since xi+1= xi + 1
pi+1 = 2 dy xi + 2 dy- 2 dx yi+1 + k ---
------------ (iii)
Now subtracting (ii) from (iii), we get
pi+1 – pi =2 dy – 2 dx (yi+1 – yi )
pi+1 = pi + 2 dy – 2 dx (yi+1 – yi )
If the next point is: (xi+1,yi) then
d1 < d2 => d1 – d2<0
=> pi<0
=> pi+1 = pi + 2 dy
If the next point is: (xi+1,yi+1) then
d1>d2 => d1 – d2>0
=> pi>0
=> pi+1= pi + 2 dy – 2 dx
The pi is our decision variable, and calculated using integer
arithmetic from pre-computed constants and its previous
value. Now a question is remaining; i.e. how to calculate
initial value of pi? For that, we use equation (i) and put
values (x1, y1)
pi = 2 dy (x1+1) – 2 dx y1 + dx (2b – 1)
where b = y – m x implies that
pi = 2 dy x1 +2 dy – 2 dx y1
+ dx ( 2 (y1 – mx1) – 1)
pi = 2 dy x1 + 2 dy – 2 dx y1 + 2 dx y1
– 2 dy x1 – dx
pi = 2 dy x1 + 2 dy – 2 dx y1 + 2 dx y1
– 2 dy x1 – dx
there are certain figures that will cancel each other (shown
in pairs of different colour)
pi = 2 dy - dx
dx = x2-x1
dy = y2-y1
p = 2dy-dx
c1 = 2dy
c2 = 2(dy-dx)
x = x1
y = y1
plot (x, y, colour)
while (x < x2)
x++
if (p < 0)
p = p + c1
else
p = p + c2
y++
plot (x,y,colour)
Problem
Calculate the points between the
starting coordinates (9, 18) and
ending coordinates (14, 22).
Solution-
Given-
•Starting coordinates = (X0, Y0) = (9, 18)
•Ending coordinates = (Xn, Yn) = (14, 22)
Step-01:
Calculate ΔX and ΔY from the given input.
•ΔX = Xn – X0 = 14 – 9 = 5
•ΔY =Yn – Y0 = 22 – 18 = 4
Step-02:
Calculate the decision
parameter.
Pk = 2ΔY – ΔX
=2x4–5
=3
So, decision parameter Pk = 3
Step-03:
As Pk >= 0, so case-02 is satisfied.
Thus,
•Pk+1 = Pk + 2ΔY – 2ΔX = 3 + (2 x 4) – (2 x
5) = 1
•Xk+1 = Xk + 1 = 9 + 1 = 10
•Yk+1 = Yk + 1 = 18 + 1 = 19
Similarly, Step-03 is executed until the end
point is reached or number of iterations
equals to 4 times.
(Number of iterations = ΔX – 1 = 5 – 1 = 4)
Pk Pk+1 Xk+1 Yk+1
9 18
3 1 10 19
1 -1 11 20
-1 7 12 20
7 5 13 21
5 3 14 22
