COMP GRAPHICS

Modeling

deals with the mathematical specification of shape and appearance

computer graphics

describes the use of computers to create and manipulate images

Rendering

deals with the creation of shaded images from 3D computer models

Animation

a technique to create an illusion of motion through a sequence of images

raster

is an array of pixels

Resolution

is the number of pixels in the raster

precision

is the number of bits used for each pixel.

buffer

is a part of a computer's memory that serves as temporary storage for data

framebuffer.

Pixel data is stored in a region of memory called

color buffer

At a minimum, the framebuffer must contain a

depth buffer

stores distances from points on scene objects to the virtual camera

stencil buffer

may be used to store values used in generating advanced effects, such as shadows,

frame

Each of the images that is displayed is called a

frame rate

The speed or rate at which these images appear is called the

frames per second (FPS)

measure of frame rate

Graphics Processing Unit

features a highly parallel structure that makes it more efficient than CPUs for rendering computer graphics

Shaders

Programs run by GPUs are called

application programming interface (API)

defines a set of commands, functions, and protocols that can be used in interacting with an external system such as the GPU

DirectX API & High-Level Shading Language (HLSL)

used on Microsoft platforms, including the Xbox game console

Metal API & Metal Shading Language

runs on modern Mac computers, iPhones, and iPads

OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) API & OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL)

iis cross- [latform library and is the most widely adopted graphics API

graphics pipeline

is an abstract model used to describe a sequence of steps needed in rendering a three-dimensional scene.

Application, Geometry processing, Rasterization, Pixel Processing

The pipeline model used in OpenGL consists of four (4) stages:

Application

– initializing the window where rendered graphics will be displayed; sending data to the GPU

Geometry Processing

– determining the position of each vertex of the geometric shapes to be rendered, implemented by a program known as vertex shader

Rasterization

determining which pixels correspond to the geometric shapes to be rendered

Pixel Processing

determining the color of each pixel in the rendered image, involving a program called a fragment shader

window

is a graphical interface element that displays an application’s content.

Startup

During this stage, objects are created, values are initialized

Main Loop

This stage repeats continuously while the application is running.

Process Input

checks if the user has performed any action that sends data to the compute

Update

changes values of variables and objects

Render

creates graphics that are displayed on the screen.

Process input, Update, Render

3 substages of Main loop:

Shutdown

This stage typically begins when the user performs an action indicating that the program should stop (

Pygame

is a set of Python modules designed for creating video games

point

is a location in space. It is the most basic graphical element

main() function

Every shader must contain a

vertex buffers

Every vertex shader that you write will use arrays of data stored in

glVertex3f

Each of the triangle’s vertices is specified by a call to the function

glGetUniformLocation

returns a value used to reference a uniform variable

. Uniform variables

are global variables that can be accessed by the vertex shader or the fragment shader

discrete

an event happens once at an isolated point in time

continuous

an event continues happening during an interval of time