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The Graphics Rendering Pipeline

Readings: Hearn and Baker, Section 6-1 (but they give a more detailed version than used here). Red book, 6-1, 6-6 (intro). White book, 8-3, Blinn: 16.

We begin with a description of forward rendering, which is the kind of rendering usually supported in hardware and is the model OpenGL uses. In forward rendering, rendering primitives are transformed, usually in a conceptual pipeline, from the model to the device.

However, raytracing, which we will consider later in the course, is a form of backward rendering. In backward rendering, we start with a point in the image and work out what model primitives project to it.

Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages.


next up previous
Next: Rendering Primitives Up: Introduction Previous: A Short History

CS488/688: Introduction to Interactive Computer Graphics
University of Waterloo
Computer Graphics Lab

cs488@cgl.uwaterloo.ca