The Graphics Pipeline and OpenGL

The Graphics Pipeline and OpenGL

The synthetic camera model

• Two components of viewing
  
  • Set of geometric objects that form content of the scene
  • Viewer through which the scene is imaged

The graphics pipeline

Primitives->Geometry processor->Rasterizer->Fragment processor->Frame buffer

The geometry processor

• Transforms primitves to the camera’s coordinate system, prepares them for rasterization
• Culls primitives facing away from the camera or lying outside the view frustum

The rasterizer

• Generates fragments(proto-pixels)

Fragment processor

• Check if fragments are visible
• Determines color
• All fragments treated identically, irrespective of the original primitive

Frame buffer

• Memory buffer used for the construction of the image.
• Not all data that passes through the frame buffer is displayed. It is like a sandbox in which the image is constructed.
• Used by the window system for display

Double buffering

• Render into the back buffer while the window system points to the front buffer. When the next frame is assembled, swap.
• Avoid terrible visual artifacts

Double buffering

• Render into the back buffer while the window system points to the front buffer. When the next frame is assembled, swap.
• Avoid terrible visual artifacts.

Advantages and disadvantages of pipeline model

• Great fro parallel processing
  
  • Primitives processed independently
  • Fragments processed independently
• Does not support interaction between multiple object in the scene
• Global illumination,shadows,reflection,refraction

Global illumination

• Consider indirect illumination that is transmitted by means of other objects
• Primitives are no longer independent

Ray tracing

• Rays are cast from the viewpoint and followed recursivley through the scene
• Whitted ray tracing: Compute direct illumination from light sources at every point hit by traced rays.

Radiosity

• Discretize scene into pathes. Compute strength of interaction between patches.
• Shoot light from source patches, deposit in other patches. iterate until light is absorbed.

Photon mapping

• Stage 1: Trace photons from light sources and deposit onto photon map when photons interact with diffuse surfaces.
• Stage 2: Cast rays from viewpoint and estimate radiance

Design considerations for OpenGL

Separation of content and viewer

• Separates object description from viewer specification
• Two types of function
  
  • Describe objects in the world (the input)
  • Specify how the object should be processed for constructing an image (the state)

OpenGL is a state machine

• State machine with input and outputs
  
  • Input is geometric object, output is a set of pixels
  • State machine converts a collection of geometric objects in three dimensions to an image. This process is controlled by the state.
  • State specifies how objects are projected onto the image plane, how the are colored, etc.