Rendering Primitives

• Models composed of large number of geometric primitives.
• The only rendering primitives typically supported in hardware are
  • Points (single pixels)
  • Line Segments
  • Polygons (often restricted to convex polygons).
• Modelling primitives include these, but also
  • Piecewise polynomial (spline) curves
  • Piecewise polynomial (spline) surfaces
  • Implicit surfaces (quadrics, blobbies, etc)
  • Other...
• Software renderer may support modelling primitives directly, or may convert into polygonal or linear approximations for hardware rendering.