CS 248 Assignment 2

Polygon Scan Conversion

CS248
Presented by Josh Wiseman
Stanford University
October 19, 2005
Announcements…

• First thing: read README.animgui. It

should tell you everything you need to
know about the GUI.

• Linking problems resolved.

• PLEASE post all questions to the

newsgroup

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Getting Started
• Read the project handout carefully!
http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs248-05/proj2.html

• Get the assignment from

/usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment2/
• “README.files” goes over details on building the
project, what different source files do, and where to find
examples.
• “README.animgui” explains what to do once the
program is running. How to create polygons, load/save
object files, and create animations (we’ll go over most
of this today too).

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Development
• The interface is built using a cross platform library
called GLUI.
• You won’t need to change the interface unless you add
features (extra credit). In that case, see the GLUI manual
in /usr/class/cs248/assignments/assignment2/arc.
• You can develop and test this program on Windows or
Mac, just make sure it works on the Linux machines in
Sweet Hall! NOTE: X forwarding the GUI may not
work, but you can use the command-line arguments.

• When we give you the sample images, don’t worry

about matching them exactly. Use the images to get
an idea of correct behavior.

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The Interface
(The interface is described in detail in README.animgui
README.animgui))
A few key points:
• (Shift + Left click) : add vertices.
• (Left click) : completes the polygon
you’re editing, or allows you to
select and drag vertices.
• (Right click) : drag the whole
polygon
• The program we give you already
handles all the editing functionality,
you just need to work on the
rendering.

When you’re ready to see the scene, hit the “Render” button.

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Scan Conversion (Rasterization)
The Algorithm (page 98 in Computer Graphics FvDFH second ed.)
• Create an Edge Table for the polygon being rendered, sorted on y.
• Don’t include horizontal edges, they are handled by the edges they connect to (see page 95 in text).

Note: xmin is the x at the minimum y for

the edge, not necessarily the minimum x
of the edge. Hence xmin = 7 for edge AB.

(FvDFH, pages 92, 98)

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Scan Conversion (cont.)
Once you have your Edge Table (ET) for the polygon, you’re ready to
step through y coordinates and render scan lines:
1. Set y to the first non-empty bucket in the ET. This is bucket 1 in the example.
2. Initialize the Active Edge Table (AET) to be empty. The AET keeps track of
which edges cross the current y scan line.
3. Repeat the following until the AET and ET are empty:
3.1 Add to the AET the ET entries for the current y. (edges AB, BC in example)
3.2 Remove from the AET entries where y = ymax. ymax. (none at first in example)
Then sort the AET on x. (order: {AB, BC})
3.3 Fill in pixel values on the y scan line using the x coordinates from the AET. Be
wary of parity–
parity– use the even/odd test to determine whether to fill (see next slide).
3.4 Increment y by 1 (to the next scan line).
3.5 For every non-vertical edge in the AET update x for the new y (calculate the next
intersection of the edge with the scan line).

Note: the algorithm in the book (presented here and in course lecture notes) attempts to fix the problems
that occur when polygons share an edge, by not rasterizing the top-most row of pixels along an
edge.
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Active Edge Table Example
Example of an AET containing edges {FA, EF, DE, CD} on scan line 8:
• 3.1: (y
(y = 8) Get edges from ET bucket y (none in this case, y = 8 has no entry)
• 3.2: Remove from the AET any entries where ymax = y (none here)
• 3.3: Draw scan line. To handle multiple edges, group in pairs: {FA,EF}, {DE,CD}
• 3.4: y = y+1 (y
(y = 8+1 = 9)
• 3.5: Update x for non-vertical edges, as in simple line drawing.

Y val Current X Slope

(FvDFH pages 92, 99) 8

Active Edge Table Example (cont.)
• 3.1: (y = 9) Get edges from ET bucket y (none in this case, y = 9 has no entry in ET)
• “Scan line 9” shown in fig 3.28 below

• 3.2: Remove from the AET any entries with ymax = y (remove FA, EF)
• 3.3: Draw scan line between {DE, CD}
• 3.4: y = y+1
y+1 = 10
• 3.5: Update x in {DE, CD}
• 3.1: (y
(y = 10) (Scan line 10 shown in fig 3.28 below)
• And so on…
on…

Y val Current X Slope

(FvDFH pages 92, 99) 9

Test Images
Some cases you should test:
(vertices added for illustration)

Self-intersecting Horizontal and Edges that cross.

polygons, to test parity. Vertical edges.

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Antialiasing
Scan conversion with super-sampling.
How can we achieve this? Two possibilities:

1. Scan convert once to a super-sampled grid, then average down.

Cost:
1 scan conversion
s2 x p2 storage, where there are (s x s) samples per pixel, (p x p) image
s2 x p2 pixel writes

2. Perform many normal scan conversions at super-sampled locations, and

additively combine them. You will implement this method using an
accumulation buffer.
Cost:
s2 scan conversions
2p2 storage (not exactly for this assignment)
s2 x p2 pixel writes
(demo: overheads) 11
Motion Blur
• Synthesize the illusion that objects in our scene are moving
quickly by blurring the image along the path of motion.

Accomplished by interpolating between

keyframes, meaning you define certain
positions at certain times, and for times in
between you calculate the position and
direction of motion.

Multiple images at different sample times

are blurred (using the accumulation
buffer), creating the illusion of motion.

(demo: motion blur .fli)

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Accumulation Buffer Algorithm
• Allows us to successively render multiple “scenes”
scenes” and have them additively
blend as we go. Each image ends up with an equal weighting of 1/n, where n is the
number of samples taken.

(Appendix A in project 2 handout)

Let "canvas" be a 16x3=48-bit pixel array, “temp”
temp” be a 8x3=24-bit pixel array, and “polygon color”
color”
be a 8x3=24-bit color value.

1 clear canvas to black;

2 n = 0 (number of samples taken so far)
3 for (i=1; i<=s; i++) (for s subpixel positions)
4 for (j=1; j<=t; j++) (for t fractional frame times)
5 clear temp to black
6 n=n+1
7 for each polygon
8 translate vertices for this subpixel position and fractional frame time
9 for each pixel in polygon (using your scan converter)
10 temp color <-- polygon color
11 for each pixel in canvas
12 canvas color <-- canvas color + temp color
13 canvas color <-- canvas color / n
14 convert canvas to 8x3 bits and display on screen (by exiting from your rasterizer)
rasterizer)

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Accumulation Buffer (cont.)
Example (with overlap):

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Accumulation Buffer (cont.)
Question: Why should we render all polygons at once per frame
(lines 7-10), why not antialias the objects separately and then
blend their images together?

• Answer: Polygons on a perfect mesh over a colored background

will show some of the background color. Rendering the polygons
together prevents any unwanted blending.

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Rasterization Notes
Question: Which pixels do we paint in ‘edge’ cases?

• Follow this general rule:

• If a sample lies within the ideal polygon, paint it.
• If a sample lies outside the ideal polygon, don’t paint it.
• If a sample lies exactly on an edge/vertex, your choice.

• This can result in gaps, which is a form of aliasing. Don’t fix it!
• Antialiasing will fill in the gap

Slivers:

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Floating Point Issues
Discussed in FvD 19.2.3

• The book presents 2 different schemes:

• Multiply to get rid of floating points, but by how much?
• Store and calculate in floating point. Slower, but recommended.

• The edge table algorithm already uses floating points when

calculating slopes and adjusting edge x values.

• Our rasterizer allows floating point vertices.

• Generally, the algorithm doesn’t change, but:

• The edge table still has integer buckets, so you must round to find
the correct bucket, and adjust xmin as appropriate.

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Floating Point Issues (cont.)
Helpful Hint:

Work through the edge table algorithm on a piece of

lined paper, with each line representing a horizontal
scan line.

Try various rounding strategies, and see which

gives the correct results.

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Extra Credit
(Extra Credit is fun!!!)
1. Extend the interface to allow interactive scaling and rotations of polygons
around a chosen point. Using matrices is one way…

2. Extend the interface to allow insertion and deletion of vertices in an

already-defined polygon. Not hard mathematically, but think of usability
as well.

3. Allow the number of vertices in a polygon to be different at any

keyframe. Example: square to house.

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Extra Credit (cont.)
4. Extend the interface to allow the input of polygons with “curved”
boundaries. Curve is approximated by lots of closely spaced vertices that are
still linearly connected. Not too tough, add vertices along mouse path while
mouse button is down.

5. Combine #3 and #4 to allow different curved boundaries for each

keyframe. Calculate approximate locations for vertices when the number
changes. For example, going from a curve with 10 vertices to one with 4,
calculate points along the 4-vertex curve at 1/10 intervals. Or come up with a
better scheme.

6. Replace linear interpolation

with splined interpolation to
create smoother transitions
between keyframes. Refer to
section 21.1.3 in text for more
info. Consider cubic B-splines
(section 11.2.3).
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Extra Credit (cont.)

7. Implement polygon clipping.

Scissoring means not sending pixel values to the canvas when they would be out of
bounds (this is the required functionality). Full clipping means trimming the edge of
the polygon so it fits within the screen, which can greatly reduce the time spent
performing rasterization.

scissoring clipping 21
Extra Credit (cont.)
8. Implement unweighted area sampling (section 3.17.2 and earlier slide) as
a user selectable alternative to accumulation buffer antialiasing (you
must still implement accumulation buffer).
For even more fun, implement weighted area sampling (section 3.17.3).

9. Create a cool animation and show it at the demo! Highly recommended!

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Development Tips
• Your canvas has (0,0) at the top left, with (canvasWidth-1,
canvasHeight-1) at bottom right. Examples in book have (0,0) at
bottom left. Doesn’t change too much, just be aware.

• If you are comfortable using them, you might find the C++
standard templates useful (especially sorted lists) for handling
lists in your edge table.

• Alternatively, you might want to write your own class or functions

to handle this.

• You only need to implement the Rasterize function in objects.cpp,

unless you’re doing extra credit.

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Questions?

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