VISIBLE SURFACE
DETECTION
PRESENTED BY
R.BRAHANA
II-MCA
INTRODUCTION
Whenever we want to generate some realistic
images, we need to find out what part of the
scenes should be displayed
To identify what parts of the scenes are visible,
we have certain methods called Visible surface
detection.
OBJECT-SPACE METHODS VS.
IMAGE-SPACE METHODS
Object definition directly vs. their projected images
Object-space methods
Image-space methods
SORTING AND COHERENCE METHODS
To improve performance
Sorting
Facilitate depth comparisons
• Coherence
Take advantage of regularity
BACK FACE DETECTION
A point (x, y, z) is “inside” a surface with plane
parameters A, B, C, and D if
The polygon is a back face if
V N 0 N = (A, B, C)
• V is a vector in the viewing direction from the
eye(camera)
• N is the normal vector to a polygon surface
DEPTH BUFFER METHOD
Commonly used image-space approach
Compares depths of each pixel on the projection
plane
Referred to as the z-buffer method
Usually applied to scenes of polygonal surfaces
Depth values can be computed very quickly
Easy to implement
Two buffer areas are required
Depth buffer
Store depth values for each (x, y) position
All positions are initialized to minimum depth
Refresh buffer
Stores the intensity values for each position
All positions are initialized to the background
intensity
ALGORITHMS
Initialize the depth buffer and refresh buffer
depth(x, y) = 0, refresh(x, y) = Ibackgnd
For each position on each polygon surface
Calculate the depth for each (x, y) position on
the polygon
If z > depth(x, y), then set
depth(x, y) = z, refresh(x, y) = Isurf(x, y)
Advanced
With resolution of 1024 by 1024
Process one section of the scene at a tim
SCAN-LINE METHOD
Extension of the scan-line algorithm for
filling polygon interiors
For all polygons intersecting each scan line
Processed from left to right
Depth calculations for each overlapping surface
The intensity of the nearest position is entered into the
refresh buffer
A-BUFFER METHOD
Extends the depth-buffer algorithm so that each
position in the buffer can reference a linked list
of surfaces.
More memory is required.
However, we can correctly compose different
surface colors and handle transparent surfaces.
TABLES FOR VARIOUS SURFACES
Edge table
Coordinate endpoints for each line
Slope of each line
Pointers into the polygon table
Polygon table
Coefficients of the plane equation for each
surface
Intensity information for the surfaces
Pointers into the edge table
Image-Space Method vs.
Object-Space Method
Image-Space Method Object-Space Method
Depth-Buffer Back-Face Detection
Method BSP-Tree Method
A-Buffer Method Area-Subdivision
Scan-Line Method Method
Area-Subdivision Octree Methods
Method Ray-Casting Method
Summary
Back-face detection methods
Fast and effective as an initial screening
In general, this can’t completely identify all
hidden surfaces
Depth-buffer(z-buffer) method
Fast and simple
Two buffers
Refresh buffer for the pixel intensities
Depth buffer for the depth of the visible
surface
A-buffer method
An improvement on the depth-buffer approach
Other visible-surface detection schemes
Scan-line method
Depth-sorting method(painter’s algorithm)
BSP-tree method
Octree methods
Ray casting
