Line Drawing

CMPT 361
Introduction to Computer Graphics
Torsten Möller

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 Rendering Pipeline
Hardware

Modelling Transform Visibility

Illumination +
Shading

Texture/
Perception,
Color Realism
Interaction
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 Reading
• Angel – Chapter 6.8, 6.9
• Foley et al - Chapter 3

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 The graphics pipeline

• From the modeling stage to image formation

• Pipelined approach helps increase system
throughput
– Throughput: rate at which data flows through the system
– In a pipeline, data processing in subsequent blocks can
be done in parallel
– Especially effective when the same sequence of
operations are to be performed on large quantity of data
– true in graphics
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 Vertex processor
• Per-vertex operations (vertices define objects/
primitives)
• Two main functionalities:
– Coordinate transformations
– Color computation at each vertex (shading models)
• Objects/geometry first defined in their own
coordinate systems, then transformed into a
world space — modeling transformation
• Then objects are transformed from world space
into the camera coordinate system — viewing
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transformation and projection transformation 5
Clipping and primitive assembly
• Model a finite field of vision
• Remove objects outside a
finite clipping volume
• Need to be done on a primitive
by primitive basis,
not on vertices
• Output is a set of primitives
whose projections can appear in the image

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 Rasterizer
• The rasterizer converts a primitive into a set of
fragments
• A fragment stores per pixel information for its
associated primitive, later used to determine whether
the fragment contributes to pixel color and to
compute the pixel color
– Raster/pixel location (in the frame buffer)
– Depth, e.g., to determine whether this fragment “survives”
– Interpolated attributes, e.g., color and texture coordinate,
from the previous stages
– Alpha value (for blending)
– Window ID, etc. © Machiraju/Zhang/Möller 7
 Fragment processing
• Performs per-fragment operations
• Main function is to compute the color at a pixel,
using information stored in the fragments, e.g.,
depth, alpha, texture coordinates; can also add in
fog and other effects
• A (programmable) fragment shader is a program
that performs the processing which replaces the
OpenGL fixed functionality, e.g., simply using
interpolated attributes
• Similar to a vertex shader (per-vertex operations)
• Shader programs typically have limited instruction
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Where are we at now?

Drawing or rasterization of
primitives first. Consider
lines and polygons.

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 Assumptions
• Transformation, clipping, projection already done
• Primitives to rasterize are actually on the screen
• Work with 2D screen coordinates with square
pixels
(N, M)

(0, 0)
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 Primitives
• Polygons
• explicit curves
– lines, quadricts
• parametric curves/surfaces
– Curves, Surfaces
• implicit description
• Misc
– particle systems/points, fractals
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 Explicit Descriptions
• Given - an explicit equation
y = f(x)
• cannot get multiple values of y
• not rotationally invariant
• no infinite slope (vertical line)
• axis dependent (y depends on x)
• specify one variable and resolve for the
other
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 Lines
• Given - an explicit line equation
y = mx+n
• Which pixels to set?
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs3421/slides/bres/Bresenham.html

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 Scan Converting Lines
• Compute the coordinates of pixels that lies
on or near an ideal, infinitely thin line
imposed on a 2D raster grid
• Assumptions
– line will be 1 pixel thick and will approximate
an infinitely fine line
– pixels represented as disjoint circles, centred on
a grid (unless specified otherwise)
– integer coordinates of endpoints
– pixel on or off ©(2Machiraju/Zhang/Möller
states) 14
 Scan Converting Lines (2)
• Desirable properties:
– constant brightness (irrespective of length or
orientation)
– 1 pixel per column (-1 <= slope <= 1), 1 pixel
per row (slope > +/- 1)
– as close to the ideal/as straight as possible
– allow control of pen, line and endpoint styles
– drawn as smoothly as possible
(anti-aliasing)
– drawn as rapidly as possible
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 Scan Converting Lines (3)
• Difficulties:
– brightness and pixel criteria conflict (for bi-
level displays)

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 Basic – Brute force
• Find slope m = rise/run or y = mx + b
• increment x by 1 (xi);
• calculate yi = mxi + b
• pixel (xi, round(yi)) turned on
• simple, but inefficient:
– floating point multiplication
– addition
– round
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 Incremental - DDA
• multiplication can yi+1 = mxi+1 + b
be eliminated:
= m(xi + 1) + b
= yi + m
• called digital differential analyzer (DDA) - after
mechanical device that solves differential
equations by numerical methods
• Drawbacks:
– floating point values (m,y)
– round operation
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– special cases could be done more quickly 18
 Lines - Bresenham
• Special case of Midpoint Line Algorithm
• uses only integer arithmetic & no rounding
• idea is to provide the best-fit approximation
to a true line by minimizing the error
(distance) to the true line
• slope (rest is done with reflection)

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 Lines - Bresenham (2)
• Explicit line equation:
y
y = mx + b = x+b
x
• Implicit line equation:
F (x, y) = x y y x+h
• Main idea - call on decision variable:
di = F (xi + 1, yi + 1/2)
= (xi + 1) y (yi + 1/2) x + h
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 Lines - Bresenham (3)
• if di > 0, pick O, and:
O = di+1 di
= F (xi + 2, yi + 1/2) = y
• if di < 0, pick NO, and:
NO = di+1 di
= F (xi + 2, yi + 3/2) = y x
• if di = 0, pick either one, but consistently

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 Lines - Bresenham (4)
• Additional issues:
– Endpoint order: we want P0 to P1 to look
exactly the same as P1 to P0
– Starting at edge of a clip rectangle: we must use
the midpoint test result rather than computing
intersections analytically if we are to ensure the
correct sequence of pixels

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Lines - Bresenham (4)

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 Quadrics - Circles
• Circles, ellipsoids, etc. p
y= R2 x2
• divide in 8 quadrants
• What is special
about 8-fold
symmetry?

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 Quadrics - Circles (2)
• Midpoint Circle Algorithm
– trace out arc in 2nd octant and draw the rest by
symmetry
– choose between E and SE pixel at each stage

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 Quadrics - Circles (3)
• incremental - now have higher order
D(x) = (x + x)2 x2 = 2x x + x2
• higher order difference system
D(x + x) D(x) = 2 x2

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 Quadrics - Ellipses
• Can a midpoint algorithm be developed for
ellipses? What are the important differences
from circles?
• The result is Da Silva's algorithm (the idea
is illustrated below):

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 Lines - Anti-Aliasing
• A continuous (zero-width) line is “invisible”
in a discrete grid.
• Give line thickness - How?
• Signal Processing Approach:
– line is high-frequency
– want to avoid aliasing
– what to do first?

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 Lines - Anti-Aliasing (2)
• Bandlimit signal - how?
• Convolve with smoothing filter - which?

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 Lines - Anti-Aliasing (3)
• Box filter not all that good
• convolve it again - why?
• Then resample!

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 Lines - Anti-Aliasing (4)
• Other alternatives?
• Can we improve this algorithm?

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