This is a list of

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images and art with the aid of computers. Computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, digital art, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. ...

and

descriptive geometry Descriptive geometry is the branch of geometry which allows the representation of three-dimensional objects in two dimensions by using a specific set of procedures. The resulting techniques are important for engineering, architecture, design an ...

topics, by article name. *

2D computer graphics 2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models (such as 2D geometric models, text, and digital images) and by techniques specific to them. It may refer to the branch of computer s ...

2D geometric model A 2D geometric model is a geometric model of an object as a two-dimensional figure, usually on the Euclidean or Cartesian plane. Even though all material objects are three-dimensional, a 2D geometric model is often adequate for certain flat ob ...

3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, sometimes called Computer-generated imagery, CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional Computer-generated imagery, computer graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian coor ...

3D modeling In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based Computer representation of surfaces, representation of a surface of an object (inanimate or living) in Three-dimensional space, three dimensions vi ...

3D projection A 3D projection (or graphical projection) is a Design, design technique used to display a three-dimensional (3D) object on a two-dimensional (2D) surface. These projections rely on perspective (graphical), visual perspective and aspect analysi ...

3D rendering 3D rendering is the 3D computer graphics process of converting 3D models into 2D images on a computer. 3D renders may include photorealistic effects or non-photorealistic styles. Rendering methods Rendering is the final process of creati ...

* A-buffer *

Algorithmic art Algorithmic art or algorithm art is art, mostly visual art, in which the design is generated by an algorithm. Algorithmic artists are sometimes called algorists. Algorithmic art is created in the form of digital paintings and sculptures, int ...

Aliasing In signal processing and related disciplines, aliasing is a phenomenon that a reconstructed signal from samples of the original signal contains low frequency components that are not present in the original one. This is caused when, in the ori ...

Alpha compositing In computer graphics, alpha compositing or alpha blending is the process of combining one image with a background to create the appearance of partial or full transparency. It is often useful to render picture elements (pixels) in separate pass ...

Alpha mapping Alpha Mapping is a technique in 3D computer graphics involving the use of texture mapping to designate the amount of transparency/translucency of areas in a certain object. Alpha mapping is used when the given object's transparency is not consist ...

Alpha to coverage Alpha to coverage is a multisampling computer graphics technique, that replaces alpha blending with a coverage mask. This achieves order-independent transparency for when anti-aliasing or semi-transparent textures are used. This particular tech ...

Ambient occlusion In 3D computer graphics, modeling, and animation, ambient occlusion is a shading and rendering technique used to calculate how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting. For example, the interior of a tube is typically more occlude ...

Anamorphosis Anamorphosis is a distorted projection that requires the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point, use special devices, or both to view a recognizable image. It is used in painting, photography, sculpture and installation, toys, and film speci ...

Anisotropic filtering In 3D computer graphics, anisotropic filtering (AF) is a technique that improves the appearance of Texture filtering, textures, especially on surfaces viewed at sharp Viewing angle, angles. It helps make textures look sharper and more detailed ...

Anti-aliasing Anti-aliasing may refer to any of a number of techniques to combat the problems of aliasing in a sampled signal such as a digital image or digital audio recording. Specific topics in anti-aliasing include: * Anti-aliasing filter, a filter used b ...

Asymptotic decider In scientific visualization the asymptotic decider is an algorithm developed by Nielson and Hamann in 1991 that creates isosurfaces from a given scalar field. It was proposed as an improvement to the marching cubes algorithm, which can produce some ...

Augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

Axis-aligned bounding box In geometry, the minimum bounding box or smallest bounding box (also known as the minimum enclosing box or smallest enclosing box) for a point set in dimensions is the box with the smallest measure (area, volume, or hypervolume in higher dime ...

Axonometric projection Axonometric projection is a type of orthographic projection used for creating a pictorial drawing of an object, where the object is rotated around one or more of its axes to reveal multiple sides.Gary R. Bertoline et al. (2002) ''Technical Graph ...

B-spline In numerical analysis, a B-spline (short for basis spline) is a type of Spline (mathematics), spline function designed to have minimal Support (mathematics), support (overlap) for a given Degree of a polynomial, degree, smoothness, and set of bre ...

Back-face culling In computer graphics, back-face culling determines whether a polygon that is part of a solid needs to be drawn. Polygons that face away from the viewer do not need to be drawn, as they will be obscured by other polygons facing the viewer. This pr ...

Barycentric coordinate system In geometry, a barycentric coordinate system is a coordinate system in which the location of a point is specified by reference to a simplex (a triangle for points in a plane, a tetrahedron for points in three-dimensional space, etc.). The ba ...

Beam tracing Beam tracing is an algorithm to simulate wave propagation. It was developed in the context of computer graphics to render 3D scenes, but it has been also used in other similar areas such as acoustics and electromagnetism simulations. Beam tracin ...

Bézier curve A Bézier curve ( , ) is a parametric equation, parametric curve used in computer graphics and related fields. A set of discrete "control points" defines a smooth, continuous curve by means of a formula. Usually the curve is intended to approxima ...

Bézier surface Bézier surfaces are a type of mathematical spline used in computer graphics, computer-aided design, and finite element modeling. As with Bézier curves, a Bézier surface is defined by a set of control points. Similar to interpolation in many ...

Bicubic interpolation In mathematics, bicubic interpolation is an extension of cubic spline interpolation (a method of applying cubic interpolation to a data set) for interpolating data points on a two-dimensional regular grid. The interpolated surface (meaning the k ...

Bidirectional reflectance distribution function The bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF), symbol f_(\omega_,\, \omega_), is a function of four real variables that defines how light from a source is reflected off an Opacity (optics), opaque surface. It is employed in the optic ...

Bidirectional scattering distribution function The definition of the BSDF (bidirectional scattering distribution function) is not well standardized. The term was probably introduced in 1980 by Bartell, Dereniak, and Wolfe. Most often it is used to name the general mathematical function which d ...

Bidirectional texture function Bidirectional texture function (BTF) is a 6-dimensional function depending on planar texture coordinates (x,y) as well as on view and illumination spherical angles. In practice this function is obtained as a set of several thousand color images of ...

Bilateral filter A bilateral filter is a non-linear, edge-preserving, and noise-reducing smoothing filter for images. It replaces the intensity of each pixel with a weighted average of intensity values from nearby pixels. This weight can be based on a Gaussia ...

Bilinear interpolation In mathematics, bilinear interpolation is a method for interpolating functions of two variables (e.g., ''x'' and ''y'') using repeated linear interpolation. It is usually applied to functions sampled on a 2D rectilinear grid, though it can be ge ...

Bin (computational geometry) In computational geometry, the bin is a data structure that allows efficient region queries. Each time a data point falls into a bin, the frequency of that bin is increased by one. For example, if there are some Cartesian Coordinate System, ...

Binary space partitioning In computer science, binary space partitioning (BSP) is a method for space partitioning which recursively subdivides a Euclidean space into two convex sets by using hyperplanes as partitions. This process of subdividing gives rise to a representa ...

Bit blit Bit blit (also written BITBLT, BIT BLT, BitBLT, Bit BLT, Bit Blt etc., which stands for ''bit block transfer'') is a data operation commonly used in computer graphics in which several bitmaps are combined into one using a ''boolean function''. Th ...

Bit plane A bit plane of a digital discrete signal (such as image or sound) is a set of bits corresponding to a given bit position in each of the binary numbers representing the signal. For example, for 16-bit data representation there are 16 bit planes: ...

Bitmap In computing, a bitmap (also called raster) graphic is an image formed from rows of different colored pixels. A GIF is an example of a graphics image file that uses a bitmap. As a noun, the term "bitmap" is very often used to refer to a partic ...

Bitmap textures Bitmap textures are digital images that represent surfaces, materials, patterns, or pictures. They are commonly used to give texture to models, renders, or environments in animation or video games. These textures are created by artists or designers ...

Blend modes Blend modes (alternatively blending modes or mixing modes) in digital image editing and computer graphics are used to determine how two Layers (digital image editing), layers are blended with each other. The default blend mode in most applications ...

Blinn–Phong reflection model The Blinn–Phong reflection model, also called the modified Phong reflection model, is a modification developed by Jim Blinn to the Phong reflection model in 1977. Blinn–Phong is a shading model used in OpenGL and Direct3D's fixed-function pipe ...

Bloom (shader effect) Bloom (sometimes referred to as light bloom or glow) is a computer graphics effect used in video games, Demo (computer programming), demos, and high-dynamic-range rendering (HDRR) to reproduce an imaging artifact of real-world cameras. The effect ...

Bounding interval hierarchy A bounding interval hierarchy (BIH) is a partitioning data structure similar to that of bounding volume hierarchy, bounding volume hierarchies or kd-trees. Bounding interval hierarchies can be used in high performance (or real-time) Ray tracing (gra ...

Bounding sphere In mathematics, given a non-empty set of objects of finite extension in d-dimensional space, for example a set of points, a bounding sphere, enclosing sphere or enclosing ball for that set is a d-dimensional solid sphere containing all of these ...

Bounding volume In computer graphics and computational geometry, a bounding volume (or bounding region) for a set of objects is a closed region that completely contains the union of the objects in the set. Bounding volumes are used to improve the efficiency ...

Bounding volume hierarchy A bounding volume hierarchy (BVH) is a tree structure on a set of geometric objects. All geometric objects, which form the leaf nodes of the tree, are wrapped in bounding volumes. These nodes are then grouped as small sets and enclosed within lar ...

Bresenham's line algorithm Bresenham's line algorithm is a line drawing algorithm that determines the points of an ''n''-dimensional raster that should be selected in order to form a close approximation to a straight line between two points. It is commonly used to draw li ...

Bump mapping Bump mapping is a texture mapping technique in computer graphics for simulating bumps and wrinkles on the surface of an object. This is achieved by perturbing the surface normals of the object and using the perturbed normal during lighting calcul ...

Calligraphic projection Calligraphic projection (also known as vector graphicshttps://www.cs.uic.edu/~jbell/CourseNotes/ComputerGraphics/VectorVsRaster.html) is a system for displaying or projecting an image composed of a beam of light or electrons directly tracing the im ...

Cel shading Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades. A cel shader is often used to mimic t ...

Channel (digital image) Color digital images are made of pixels, and pixels are made of combinations of primary colors represented by a series of code. A channel in this context is the grayscale image of the same size as a color image, made of just one of these primary ...

Checkerboard rendering Checkerboard rendering or sparse rendering, also known as checkerboarding for short, is a 3D computer graphics rendering technique, intended primarily to assist graphics processing units with rendering images at high resolutions. It is different f ...

Circular thresholding Circular thresholding is an algorithm for Thresholding (image processing), automatic image threshold selection in image processing. Most threshold selection algorithms assume that the values (e.g. intensities) lie on a linear scale. However, ...

* Clip coordinates *

Clipmap In computer graphics, clipmapping is a method of clipping a mipmap to a subset of data pertinent to the geometry being displayed. This is useful for loading as little data as possible when memory is limited, such as on a graphics processing unit. T ...

Clipping (computer graphics) Clipping, in the context of computer graphics, is a method to selectively enable or disable rendering (computer graphics), rendering operations within a defined region of interest. Mathematically, clipping can be described using the terminology o ...

Clipping path A clipping path (or "deep etch") is a closed vector path, or shape, used to cut out a 2D image in image editing software. Anything inside the path will be included after the clipping path is applied; anything outside the path will be omitted f ...

Collision detection Collision detection is the computational problem of detecting an intersection of two or more objects in virtual space. More precisely, it deals with the questions of ''if'', ''when'' and ''where'' two or more objects intersect. Collision detect ...

Color depth Color depth, also known as bit depth, is either the number of bits used to indicate the color of a single pixel, or the number of bits used for each color component of a single pixel. When referring to a pixel, the concept can be defined as bit ...

Color gradient In color science, a color gradient (also known as a color ramp or a color progression) specifies a range of position-dependent colors, usually used to fill a region. In assigning colors to a set of values, a gradient is a continuous colormap, ...

Color space A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of colorwhether such representation entails an analog or a digital represe ...

Colour banding Colour banding is a subtle form of posterization in digital images, caused by the colour of each pixel being rounded to the nearest of the digital colour levels. While posterization is often done for artistic effect, colour banding is an unde ...

Color bleeding (computer graphics) In computer graphics and 3D rendering, color bleeding is the phenomenon in which objects or surfaces are colored by reflection of colored light from nearby surfaces. This is a visible effect that appears when a scene is rendered with Radiosity ...

Color cycling Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorpti ...

Composite Bézier curve In geometric modelling and in computer graphics, a composite Bézier curve or Bézier spline is a Spline (mathematics), spline made out of Bézier curves that is at least C^0 continuous function, continuous. In other words, a composite Bézier cu ...

Compositing Compositing is the process or technique of combining visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live action, Live-action shooting for compositing ...

* Computational geometry *

Compute kernel In computing, a compute kernel is a routine compiled for high throughput accelerators (such as graphics processing units (GPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs) or field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)), separate from but used by a main pro ...

Computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating Film, moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Virtu ...

Computer art Computer art is art in which computers play a role in the production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation. Many traditio ...

Computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images and art with the aid of computers. Computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, digital art, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. ...

Computer graphics (computer science) Computer graphics is a sub-field of computer science which studies methods for digitally synthesizing and manipulating visual content. Although the term often refers to the study of three-dimensional computer graphics, it also encompasses two-dim ...

Computer graphics lighting Computer graphics lighting encompasses the range of techniques used to simulate light within computer graphics. These methods vary in computational complexity, offering artists flexibility in both visual detail and performance. Graphics profession ...

Computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a specific-technology or application of computer graphics for creating or improving images in Digital art, art, Publishing, printed media, Training simulation, simulators, videos and video games. These images ...

Cone tracing Cone tracing and beam tracing are a derivative of the ray tracing algorithm that replaces rays, which have no thickness, with thick rays. Principles In ray tracing, rays are often modeled as geometric ray with no thickness to perform efficient g ...

* Constructive solid geometry *

Control point (mathematics) In computer-aided geometric design a control point is a member of a set of Point (geometry), points used to determine the shape of a spline curve or, more generally, a computer representation of surfaces, surface or higher-dimensional object. For ...

Convex hull In geometry, the convex hull, convex envelope or convex closure of a shape is the smallest convex set that contains it. The convex hull may be defined either as the intersection of all convex sets containing a given subset of a Euclidean space, ...

Cross section (geometry) In geometry and science, a cross section is the non-empty intersection (set theory), intersection of a solid body in three-dimensional space with a Plane (geometry), plane, or the analog in higher-dimensional spaces. Cutting an object into slic ...

Cube mapping In computer graphics, cube mapping is a method of environment mapping that uses the six faces of a cube as the map shape. The environment is projected onto the sides of a cube and stored as six square textures, or unfolded into six regions of a s ...

Curvilinear perspective Curvilinear perspective, also five-point perspective, is a graphical projection used to draw 3D objects on 2D surfaces, for which (straight) lines on the 3D object are projected to curves on the 2D surface that are typically not straight (hence ...

Cutaway drawing A cutaway drawing, also called a cutaway diagram, is a 3D graphics, drawing, diagram and or illustration, in which surface elements of a three-dimensional model are selectively removed, to make internal features visible, but without sacrificing t ...

* Cylindrical perspective *

Data compression In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compressi ...

Deferred shading In the field of 3D computer graphics, deferred shading is a screen-space shading technique that is performed on a second Rendering (computer graphics), rendering pass, after the vertex and pixel shaders are rendered. It was first suggested by ...

Delaunay triangulation In computational geometry, a Delaunay triangulation or Delone triangulation of a set of points in the plane subdivides their convex hull into triangles whose circumcircles do not contain any of the points; that is, each circumcircle has its gen ...

Demo effect The demo effect is a name for computer-based real-time visual effects found in demos created by the demoscene. The main purpose of demo effects in demos is to show off the skills of the programmer. Because of this, demo coders have often attemp ...

Depth map In 3D computer graphics and computer vision, a depth map is an Digital image, image or Channel (digital image), image channel that contains information relating to the distance of the Computer representation of surfaces, surfaces of scene objec ...

Depth peeling In computer graphics, depth peeling is a method of order-independent transparency Order-independent transparency (OIT) is a class of techniques in rasterization, rasterisational computer graphics for rendering Transparency (graphic), transparency ...

Device-independent pixel A device-independent pixel (also: ''density-independent pixel'', ''dip'', ''dp'') is a unit of length. A typical use is to allow mobile device software to scale the display of information and user interaction to different screen sizes. The abstra ...

Diffuse reflection Diffuse reflection is the reflection of light or other waves or particles from a surface such that a ray incident on the surface is scattered at many angles rather than at just one angle as in the case of specular reflection. An ''ideal'' dif ...

Digital art Digital art, or the digital arts, is artistic work that uses Digital electronics, digital technology as part of the creative or presentational process. It can also refer to computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960 ...

Digital compositing Digital compositing is the process of digitally assembling multiple images to make a final image, typically for print, motion pictures or screen display. It is the digital analogue of optical film compositing. It's part of VFX processing. Ma ...

Digital differential analyzer (graphics algorithm) In computer graphics, a digital differential analyzer (DDA) is hardware or software used for interpolation of variables over an interval between start and end point. DDAs are used for rasterization of lines, triangles and polygons. They can be e ...

Digital image processing Digital image processing is the use of a digital computer to process digital images through an algorithm. As a subcategory or field of digital signal processing, digital image processing has many advantages over analog image processing. It allo ...

Digital painting Digital painting is either a physical painting made with the use of digital electronics and spray paint robotics within the digital art fine art context or pictorial art imagery made with pixels on a computer screen that mimics artworks from th ...

Digital raster graphic A digital raster graphic (DRG) is a digital image resulting from scanning a paper USGS topographic map for use on a computer. DRGs created by USGS are typically scanned at 250 dpi and saved as a TIFF. The raster image usually includes the orig ...

Digital sculpting Digital sculpting, also known as sculpt modeling or 3D sculpting, is the use of software that offers tools to push, pull, smooth, grab, pinch or otherwise manipulate a digital object as if it were made of a real-life substance such as clay. Sculp ...

Displacement mapping Displacement mapping is an alternative computer graphics technique in contrast to bump, normal, and parallax mapping, using a texture or height map to cause an effect where the actual geometric position of points over the textured surface are ...

Display list A display list, also called a command list in Direct3D 12 and a command buffer in Vulkan, is a series of graphics commands or instructions that are run when the list is executed. Systems that make use of display list functionality are called ...

Display resolution The display resolution or display modes of a digital television, computer monitor, or other display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resoluti ...

Distance fog Distance fog is a technique used in 3D computer graphics to enhance the perception of distance by shading distant objects differently. Because many of the shapes in graphical environments are relatively simple, and complex shadows are difficul ...

Distributed ray tracing Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

Dither Dither is an intentionally applied form of noise used to randomize quantization error, preventing large-scale patterns such as color banding in images. Dither is routinely used in processing of both digital audio and video data, and is ofte ...

Dots per inch Dots per inch (DPI, or dpiThe acronym appears in sources as either "DPI" or lowercase "dpi". See "Print Resolution Understanding 4-bit depth – Xerox" (PDF). Xerox.com. September 2012.) is a measure of spatial printing, video or image scanner ...

Draw distance Draw, drawing, draws, or drawn most commonly refer to: * Draw (terrain), a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in between them * Draw (tie), in a competition, where competitors achieve equal outcomes * Drawi ...

Edge detection Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed b ...

Elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

Engineering drawing An engineering drawing is a type of technical drawing that is used to convey information about an object. A common use is to specify the geometry necessary for the construction of a component and is called a detail drawing. Usually, a number of ...

Environment artist An environment artist is a professional artist who works in the video game industry or film industry as a 3D modeler, specializing in outdoor and indoor locations for a game's setting. They are responsible for creating and modeling the majority ...

Exploded-view drawing An exploded-view drawing is a diagram, picture, schematic or technical drawing of an object, that shows the relationship or order of assembly of various parts. It shows the components of an object slightly separated by distance, or suspended i ...

* False radiosity *

Fast approximate anti-aliasing Fast approximate anti-aliasing (FXAA) is a screen-space anti-aliasing algorithm created by Timothy Lottes at Nvidia. FXAA 3 is released under a public domain license. A later version, FXAA 3.11, is released under a 3-clause BSD license. Algori ...

Fillrate In computer graphics, a video card's pixel fillrate refers to the number of pixels that can be Rendering (computer graphics), rendered on the screen and written to Video random access memory, video memory in one second. Pixel fillrates are give ...

Flood fill Flood fill, also called seed fill, is a flooding algorithm that determines and alters the area connected to a given node in a multi-dimensional array with some matching attribute. It is used in the "bucket" fill tool of paint programs to fill ...

Font rasterization Font rasterization is the process of converting text from a vector description (as found in scalable fonts such as TrueType fonts) to a raster or bitmap description. This often involves some anti-aliasing on screen text to make it smoother a ...

Fractal In mathematics, a fractal is a Shape, geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scale ...

Fractal landscape A fractal landscape or fractal surface is generated using a stochastic algorithm designed to produce fractal behavior that mimics the appearance of natural terrain. In other words, the surface resulting from the procedure is not a deterministic, ...

Fragment (computer graphics) In computer graphics, a fragment is the data necessary to generate a single pixel's worth of a drawing primitive in the frame buffer. These data may include, but are not limited to: * Raster graphics, raster position * Z-buffering, depth * inter ...

Frame rate Frame rate, most commonly expressed in frame/s, or FPS, is typically the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (Film frame, frames) are captured or displayed. This definition applies to film and video cameras, computer animation, and moti ...

Framebuffer A framebuffer (frame buffer, or sometimes framestore) is a portion of random-access memory (RAM) containing a bitmap that drives a video display. It is a memory buffer containing data representing all the pixels in a complete video frame. Mode ...

* Free-form deformation *

Fresnel equations The Fresnel equations (or Fresnel coefficients) describe the reflection and transmission of light (or electromagnetic radiation in general) when incident on an interface between different optical media. They were deduced by French engineer and ...

Gaussian splatting Gaussian splatting is a volume rendering technique that deals with the direct rendering of volume data without converting the data into surface or line Geometric primitive, primitives. The technique was originally introduced as splatting by Lee ...

Geometric modeling __NOTOC__ Geometric modeling is a branch of applied mathematics and computational geometry that studies methods and algorithms for the mathematical description of shapes. The shapes studied in geometric modeling are mostly two- or three-dimensi ...

Geometric primitive In vector computer graphics, CAD systems, and geographic information systems, a geometric primitive (or prim) is the simplest (i.e. 'atomic' or irreducible) geometric shape that the system can handle (draw, store). Sometimes the subroutines ...

Geometrical optics Geometrical optics, or ray optics, is a model of optics that describes light Wave propagation, propagation in terms of ''ray (optics), rays''. The ray in geometrical optics is an abstract object, abstraction useful for approximating the paths along ...

Geometry processing Geometry processing is an area of research that uses concepts from applied mathematics, computer science and engineering to design efficient algorithms for the acquisition, 3D reconstruction, reconstruction, analysis, manipulation, simulation and ...

Global illumination Global illumination (GI), or indirect illumination, is a group of algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aest ...

Gouraud shading Gouraud shading ( ), named after Henri Gouraud (computer scientist), Henri Gouraud, is an interpolation method used in computer graphics to produce continuous shading of surfaces represented by Polygon mesh, polygon meshes. In practice, Gouraud ...

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal ...

Graph drawing Graph drawing is an area of mathematics and computer science combining methods from geometric graph theory and information visualization to derive two-dimensional depictions of graph (discrete mathematics), graphs arising from applications such ...

Graphics library A graphics library or graphics API is a program library designed to aid in rendering computer graphics to a monitor. This typically involves providing optimized versions of functions that handle common rendering tasks. This can be done purely in ...

Graphics pipeline The computer graphics pipeline, also known as the rendering pipeline, or graphics pipeline, is a framework within computer graphics that outlines the necessary procedures for transforming a three-dimensional (3D) scene into a two-dimensional (2 ...

Graphics software In computer graphics, graphics software refers to a program or collection of programs that enable a person to manipulate images or models visually on a computer. Computer graphics can be classified into two distinct categories: raster graphics ...

Graphics suite A graphics suite is a software suite for graphics work that are distributed together. The programs are usually able to interact with each other on a higher level than the operating system would normally allow. There is no hard, fast rule regarding ...

Heightmap In computer graphics, a heightmap or heightfield is a raster image used mainly as Discrete Global Grid in secondary elevation modeling. Each pixel stores values, such as surface elevation data, for display in 3D computer graphics. A height ...

* Hemicube (computer graphics) *

Hidden-line removal In 3D computer graphics, solid objects are usually modeled by polyhedra. A face of a polyhedron is a planar polygon bounded by straight line segments, called edges. Curved surfaces are usually approximated by a polygon mesh. Computer programs ...

Hidden-surface determination In 3D computer graphics, hidden-surface determination (also known as shown-surface determination, hidden-surface removal (HSR), occlusion culling (OC) or visible-surface determination (VSD)) is the process of identifying what Computer representat ...

High dynamic range High dynamic range (HDR), also known as wide dynamic range, extended dynamic range, or expanded dynamic range, is a signal with a higher dynamic range than usual. The term is often used in discussing the dynamic ranges of images, videos, audio o ...

High-dynamic-range rendering High-dynamic-range rendering (HDRR or HDR rendering), also known as high-dynamic-range lighting, is the rendering of computer graphics scenes by using lighting calculations done in high dynamic range (HDR). This allows preservation of details t ...

Image and object order rendering In computer graphics, image order algorithms iterate over the pixels in the image to be produced, rather than the elements in the scene to be rendered. Object order algorithms are those that iterate over the elements in the scene to be rendered, r ...

Image-based lighting Image-based lighting (IBL) is a 3D rendering technique which involves capturing an omnidirectional representation of real-world light information as an image, typically using a 360° camera. This image is then projected onto a dome or sphere analog ...

Image-based modeling and rendering In computer graphics and computer vision, image-based modeling and rendering (IBMR) methods rely on a set of two-dimensional images of a scene to generate a three-dimensional model and then render some novel views of this scene. The traditional ...

Image compression Image compression is a type of data compression applied to digital images, to reduce their cost for computer data storage, storage or data transmission, transmission. Algorithms may take advantage of visual perception and the statistical properti ...

Image file format An image file format is a file format for a digital image. There are many formats that can be used, such as JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Most formats up until 2022 were for storing 2D images, not 3D ones. The data stored in an image file format may be co ...

Image plane In 3D computer graphics, the image plane is that plane in the world which is identified with the plane of the display monitor used to view the image that is being rendered. It is also referred to as screen space. If one makes the analogy of taki ...

Image resolution Image resolution is the level of detail of an image. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail. Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies ...

Image scaling In computer graphics and digital imaging, image scaling refers to the resizing of a digital image. In video technology, the magnification of digital material is known as upscaling or resolution enhancement. When scaling a vector graphic image ...

Immediate mode (computer graphics) Immediate mode is an application programming interface, API design pattern in computer graphics libraries, in which * the Client (computing), client calls directly cause Rendering (computer graphics), rendering of graphics objects to the display ...

Implicit surface In mathematics, an implicit surface is a Surface (geometry), surface in Euclidean space defined by an equation : F(x,y,z)=0. An ''implicit surface'' is the set of Zero of a function, zeros of a Function of several real variables, function of ...

Importance sampling Importance sampling is a Monte Carlo method for evaluating properties of a particular distribution, while only having samples generated from a different distribution than the distribution of interest. Its introduction in statistics is generally at ...

Impossible object An impossible object (also known as an impossible figure or an undecidable figure) is a type of optical illusion that consists of a two-dimensional figure which is instantly and naturally understood as representing a projection of a three-dimen ...

Inbetweening Inbetweening, also known as tweening, is a process in animation that involves creating intermediate frames, called inbetweens, between two keyframes. The intended result is to create the illusion of movement by smoothly transitioning one image int ...

* Irregular Z-buffer *

Isometric projection Isometric projection is a method for visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions in technical and engineering drawings. It is an axonometric projection in which the three coordinate axes appear equally foreshortened and ...

Jaggies Jaggies are artifacts in raster images, most frequently from aliasing, which in turn is often caused by non-linear mixing effects producing high-frequency components, or missing or poor anti-aliasing filtering prior to sampling. Jaggies are stai ...

k-d tree In computer science, a ''k''-d tree (short for ''k-dimensional tree'') is a space-partitioning data structure for organizing points in a ''k''-dimensional space. K-dimensional is that which concerns exactly k orthogonal axes or a space of any ...

Lambertian reflectance Lambertian reflectance is the property that defines an ideal "matte" or diffusely reflecting surface. The apparent brightness of a Lambertian surface to an observer is the same regardless of the observer's angle of view. More precisely, the ref ...

* Lathe (graphics) *

Level of detail (computer graphics) In computer graphics, level of detail (LOD) refers to the complexity of a 3D model representation. LOD can be decreased as the model moves away from the viewer or according to other metrics such as object importance, viewpoint-relative speed or pos ...

Light field A light field, or lightfield, is a vector-valued function, vector function that describes the amount of light flowing in every direction through every point in a space. The space of all possible ''light rays'' is given by the Five-dimensional space ...

Light transport theory Light transport theory deals with the mathematics behind calculating the energy transfers between media that affect visibility. This article is currently specific to light transport in rendering processes such as global illumination and high dyn ...

Lightmap A lightmap is a data structure used in lightmapping, a form of surface caching in which the brightness of surfaces in a virtual scene is pre-calculated and stored in texture maps for later use. Lightmaps are most commonly applied to static o ...

Line clipping In computer graphics, line clipping is the process of removing ( clipping) lines or portions of lines outside an area of interest (a viewport or view volume). Typically, any part of a line which is outside of the viewing area is removed. There ...

Line drawing algorithm In computer graphics, a line drawing algorithm is an algorithm for approximating a line segment on discrete graphical media, such as pixel-based displays and printers. On such media, line drawing requires an approximation (in nontrivial cases). ...

Local coordinates Local coordinates are the ones used in a ''local coordinate system'' or a ''local coordinate space''. Simple examples: * Houses. In order to work in a house construction, the measurements are referred to a control arbitrary point that will allow ...

Low-discrepancy sequence In mathematics, a low-discrepancy sequence is a sequence with the property that for all values of N, its subsequence x_1, \ldots, x_N has a low discrepancy of a sequence, discrepancy. Roughly speaking, the discrepancy of a sequence is low if the p ...

Low poly Low poly is a polygon mesh in 3D computer graphics that has a relatively small number of polygons. Low poly meshes occur in real-time applications (e.g. games) as contrast with high poly meshes in animated movies and special effects of the s ...

Marching cubes Marching cubes is a computer graphics algorithm, published in the 1987 SIGGRAPH proceedings by Lorensen and Cline, for extracting a polygonal mesh of an isosurface from a three-dimensional discrete scalar field (the elements of which are somet ...

Marching squares In computer graphics, marching squares is an algorithm that generates contour lines, contours for a two-dimensional scalar field (rectangular array data structure, array of individual numerical values). A similar method can be used to contour 2D ...

Marching tetrahedra Marching tetrahedra is an algorithm in the field of computer graphics to render implicit surfaces. It clarifies a minor ambiguity problem of the marching cubes algorithm with some cube configurations. It was originally introduced in 1991. While t ...

Mask (computing) In computer science, a mask or bitmask is data that is used for bitwise operations, particularly in a bit field. Using a mask, multiple bits in a byte, nibble, Word (computer architecture), word, etc. can be set either on or off, or inverted from ...

Mesh generation Mesh generation is the practice of creating a polygon mesh, mesh, a subdivision of a continuous geometric space into discrete geometric and topological cells. Often these cells form a simplicial complex. Usually the cells partition the geometric ...

Metropolis light transport Metropolis light transport (MLT) is a global illumination application of a Monte Carlo method called the Metropolis–Hastings algorithm to the rendering equation for generating images from detailed physical descriptions of 3D computer graphics, t ...

* Micropolygon *

Minimum bounding box In geometry, the minimum bounding box or smallest bounding box (also known as the minimum enclosing box or smallest enclosing box) for a point set in dimensions is the box with the smallest measure (area, volume, or hypervolume in higher dime ...

Minimum bounding rectangle In computational geometry, the minimum bounding rectangle (MBR), also known as bounding box (BBOX) or envelope, is an expression of the maximum extents of a two-dimensional object (e.g. point, line, polygon) or set of objects within its coord ...

Mipmap In computer graphics, a mipmap (''mip'' being an acronym of the Latin phrase ''multum in parvo'', meaning "much in little") is a pre-calculated, optimized sequence of images, each of which has an image resolution which is a factor of two small ...

Monte Carlo integration In mathematics, Monte Carlo integration is a technique for numerical integration using random numbers. It is a particular Monte Carlo method that numerically computes a definite integral. While other algorithms usually evaluate the integrand at ...

Morph target animation Morph target animation, per-vertex animation, shape interpolation, shape keys, or blend shapes is a method of 3D computer animation used together with techniques such as skeletal animation. In a morph target animation, a "deformed" version of a m ...

Morphing Morphing is a special effect in motion pictures and animations that changes (or morphs) one image or shape into another through a seamless transition. Traditionally such a depiction would be achieved through dissolving techniques on film. Si ...

Morphological antialiasing Morphological antialiasing (MLAA) is a technique for minimizing the distortion artifacts known as aliasing when representing a high-resolution image at a lower resolution. Contrary to multisample anti-aliasing (MSAA), which does not work for def ...

Motion blur Motion blur is the apparent streaking of moving objects in a photograph or a sequence of frames, such as a film or animation. It results when the image being recorded changes during the recording of a single exposure, due to rapid movement or l ...

Multiple buffering In computer science, multiple buffering is the use of more than one buffer to hold a block of data, so that a " reader" will see a complete (though perhaps old) version of the data instead of a partially updated version of the data being created ...

Multisample anti-aliasing Multisample anti-aliasing (MSAA) is a type of spatial anti-aliasing, a technique used in computer graphics to remove jaggies. It is an optimization of supersampling, where only the necessary parts are sampled more. Jaggies are only noticed in ...

Multiview orthographic projection In technical drawing and computer graphics, a multiview projection is a technique of illustration by which a standardized series of orthographic projection, orthographic two-dimensional pictures are constructed to represent the form of a three-d ...

Nearest-neighbor interpolation Nearest-neighbor interpolation (also known as proximal interpolation or, in some contexts, point sampling) is a simple method of multivariate interpolation in one or more dimensions. Interpolation is the problem of approximating the value of a ...

Neural radiance field A neural radiance field (NeRF) is a method based on deep learning for reconstructing a three-dimensional representation of a scene from two-dimensional images. The NeRF model enables downstream applications of novel view synthesis, scene geometry ...

Non-photorealistic rendering Non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) is an area of computer graphics that focuses on enabling a wide variety of expressive styles for digital art, in contrast to traditional computer graphics, which focuses on photorealism. NPR is inspired by other ...

Non-uniform rational B-spline Non-uniform rational basis spline (NURBS) is a mathematical model using B-spline, basis splines (B-splines) that is commonly used in computer graphics for representing curves and Surface (mathematics), surfaces. It offers great flexibility and pr ...

(NURBS) *

Normal mapping In 3D computer graphics, normal mapping, or Dot3 bump mapping, is a texture mapping technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents – an implementation of bump mapping. It is used to add details without using more polygonal modeling, ...

Oblique projection Oblique projection is a simple type of technical drawing of graphical projection used for producing two-dimensional (2D) images of three-dimensional (3D) objects. The objects are not in perspective and so do not correspond to any view of an ...

Octree An octree is a tree data structure in which each internal node has exactly eight child node, children. Octrees are most often used to partition a three-dimensional space by recursive subdivision, recursively subdividing it into eight Octant (geo ...

On-set virtual production On-set virtual production (OSVP) is an entertainment technology for television and film production in which LED panels are used as a backdrop for a set, on which video or computer-generated imagery can be displayed in real-time. The use of OSV ...

Order-independent transparency Order-independent transparency (OIT) is a class of techniques in rasterization, rasterisational computer graphics for rendering Transparency (graphic), transparency in a 3D scene, which do not require rendering geometry in sorted order for alpha co ...

* Ordered dithering *

Oren–Nayar reflectance model The Oren–Nayar reflectance model, developed by Michael Oren and Shree K. Nayar, is a reflectivity model for diffuse reflection from rough surfaces. It has been shown to accurately predict the appearance of a wide range of natural surfaces, su ...

Orthographic projection Orthographic projection (also orthogonal projection and analemma) is a means of representing Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional objects in Plane (mathematics), two dimensions. Orthographic projection is a form of parallel projection in ...

Painter's algorithm The painter's algorithm (also depth-sort algorithm and priority fill) is an algorithm for Hidden-surface determination#Visible surface determination, visible surface determination in 3D computer graphics that works on a polygon, polygon-by-polyg ...

Palette (computing) In computer graphics, a palette is the set of available colors from which an image can be made. In some systems, the palette is fixed by the hardware design, and in others it is dynamic, typically implemented via a color lookup table (CLUT), ...

Parallax mapping Parallax mapping (also called offset mapping or virtual displacement mapping) is an enhancement of the bump mapping or normal mapping techniques applied to textures in 3D rendering applications such as video games. To the end user, this means ...

Parallax occlusion mapping Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or half-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby objec ...

Parallax scrolling Parallax scrolling is a technique in computer graphics where background images move past the camera more slowly than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D scene of distance. The technique grew out of the multiplane camera te ...

Parallel projection In three-dimensional geometry, a parallel projection (or axonometric projection) is a projection of an object in three-dimensional space onto a fixed plane, known as the ''projection plane'' or ''image plane'', where the '' rays'', known as '' ...

Particle system A particle system is a technique in game physics, motion graphics, and computer graphics that uses many minute sprites, 3D models, or other graphic objects to simulate certain kinds of "fuzzy" phenomena, which are otherwise very hard to rep ...

Path tracing Path tracing is a rendering algorithm in computer graphics that Simulation, simulates how light interacts with Physical object, objects, voxels, and Volumetric_path_tracing, participating media to generate realistic (''physically plausible'') R ...

Per-pixel lighting In computer graphics, per-pixel lighting refers to any technique for lighting an image or scene that calculates illumination for each pixel on a rendered image. This is in contrast to other popular methods of lighting such as vertex lighting, whi ...

Perlin noise Perlin noise is a type of gradient noise developed by Ken Perlin in 1983. It has many uses, including but not limited to: Scenery generator, procedurally generating terrain, applying pseudo-random changes to a variable, and assisting in the creat ...

Perspective (graphical) Linear or point-projection perspective () is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, generally on a flat surface, of ...

Perspective control Perspective control is a procedure for composing or editing photographs to better conform with the commonly accepted distortions in constructed perspective. The control would: * make all lines that are vertical in reality vertical in the image. ...

Perspective distortion In photography and cinematography, perspective distortion is a warping or transformation of an object and its surrounding area that differs significantly from what the object would look like with a normal focal length, due to the relative scale ...

Phong reflection model The Phong reflection model (also called Phong illumination or Phong lighting) is an empirical model of the local illumination of points on a surface designed by the computer graphics researcher Bui Tuong Phong. In 3D computer graphics, it is ...

Phong shading In 3D computer graphics, Phong shading, Phong interpolation, or normal-vector interpolation shading is an interpolation technique for surface shading invented by computer graphics pioneer Bui Tuong Phong. Phong shading interpolates surface no ...

Photogrammetry Photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant ima ...

Photon mapping In computer graphics, photon mapping is a two-pass global illumination rendering algorithm developed by Henrik Wann Jensen between 1995 and 2001Jensen, H. (1996). ''Global Illumination using Photon Maps''. nlineAvailable at: http://graphics.sta ...

Physically based rendering Physically based rendering (PBR) is a computer graphics approach that seeks to render images in a way that models the lights and surfaces with optics in the real world. It is often referred to as "Physically Based Lighting" or "Physically Based ...

Physics engine A physics engine is computer software that provides an approximate simulation of certain physical systems, typically classical dynamics, including rigid body dynamics (including collision detection), soft body dynamics, and fluid dynamics. I ...

Picture plane In painting, photography, graphical perspective and descriptive geometry, a picture plane is an image plane located between the "eye point" (or '' oculus'') and the object being viewed and is usually coextensive to the material surface of the w ...

Pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...

* Pixel art *

Pixel-art scaling algorithms Pixel art scaling algorithms are graphical filters that attempt to enhance the appearance of hand-drawn 2D pixel art graphics. These algorithms are a form of automatic image enhancement. Pixel art scaling algorithms employ methods significantly ...

Pixel density Pixels per inch (ppi) and pixels per centimetre (ppcm or pixels/cm) are measurements of the pixel density of an electronic image device, such as a computer monitor or television display, or image digitizing device such as a camera or image scan ...

Pixel geometry The components of the pixels (primary colors red, green and blue) in an image sensor or display can be ordered in different patterns, called pixel geometry. The geometric arrangement of the primary colors within a pixel varies depending on usage ...

Point cloud A point cloud is a discrete set of data Point (geometry), points in space. The points may represent a 3D shape or object. Each point Position (geometry), position has its set of Cartesian coordinates (X, Y, Z). Points may contain data other than ...

Polygon (computer graphics) Polygons are used in computer graphics to compose images that are three-dimensional in appearance, and are one of the most popular geometric building blocks in computer graphics. Polygons are built up of vertices, and are typically used as triang ...

Polygon mesh In 3D computer graphics and solid modeling, a polygon mesh is a collection of , s and s that defines the shape of a polyhedron, polyhedral object's surface. It simplifies Rendering (computer graphics), rendering, as in a wire-frame model. The fac ...

Polygonal modeling In 3D computer graphics, polygonal modeling is an approach for modeling objects by representing or approximating their surfaces using polygon meshes. Polygonal modeling is well suited to scanline rendering and is therefore the method of choice for ...

Popping (computer graphics) In 3D computer graphics, popping refers to an undesirable visual effect that occurs when the transition of a 3D object to a different pre-calculated Level of detail (computer graphics), level of detail (LOD) is abrupt and obvious to the viewer.M. ...

Portal rendering In computer-generated imagery and real-time 3D computer graphics, portal rendering is an algorithm for visibility determination. For example, consider a 3D computer game environment, which may contain many polygons, only a few of which may be v ...

Posterization Posterization or posterisation of an image is the conversion of a continuous gradation of tone to several regions of fewer tones, causing abrupt changes from one tone to another. This was originally done with photographic processes to create ...

Potentially visible set In 3D computer graphics, Potentially Visible Sets are used to accelerate the rendering of 3D environments. They are a form of occlusion culling, whereby a candidate set of ''potentially visible'' polygons are pre-computed, then indexed at run- ...

Pre-rendering Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputting or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of footage that was previously rendered on different equipment (typ ...

Precomputed Radiance Transfer Precomputed Radiance Transfer (PRT) is a computer graphics technique used to render a scene in real time with complex light interactions being precomputed to save time. Radiosity methods can be used to determine the diffuse lighting of the scene, ...

Procedural generation In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated content and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. I ...

* Procedural surface *

Procedural texture In computer graphics, a procedural texture is a Image texture, texture created using a mathematical description (i.e. an algorithm) rather than directly stored data. The advantage of this approach is low storage cost, unlimited texture resolution ...

* Progressive meshes *

Projection mapping Projection mapping, similar to video mapping and spatial augmented reality, is a video projection, projection technique used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into display surfaces for video projection. The objects may be complex industr ...

Projection plane A projection plane, or plane of projection, is a type of view in which graphical projections from an object intersect.Gary R. Bertoline et al. (2002) ''Technical Graphics Communication''. McGraw–Hill Professional, 2002. , p. 330. Projection plane ...

Projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting (''p ...

(for graphical projection see

) *

Quadtree A quadtree is a tree data structure in which each internal node has exactly four children. Quadtrees are the two-dimensional analog of octrees and are most often used to partition a two-dimensional space by recursively subdividing it into four ...

Quasi-Monte Carlo method In numerical analysis, the quasi-Monte Carlo method is a method for numerical integration and solving some other problems using low-discrepancy sequences (also called quasi-random sequences or sub-random sequences) to achieve variance reduction. ...

* Radiosity *

Raster graphics upright=1, The Smiley, smiley face in the top left corner is a raster image. When enlarged, individual pixels appear as squares. Enlarging further, each pixel can be analyzed, with their colors constructed through combination of the values for ...

Raster graphics editor A raster graphics editor (also called bitmap graphics editor) is a computer program that allows users to create and edit images interactively on the computer screen and save them in one of many raster graphics file formats (also known as bitmap ...

Raster image processor A raster image processor (RIP) is a component used in a printing system which produces a raster image also known as a bitmap. Such a bitmap is used by a later stage of the printing system to produce the printed output. The input may be a page ...

Rasterisation In computer graphics, rasterisation (British English) or rasterization (American English) is the task of taking an image described in a vector graphics format (shapes) and converting it into a raster image (a series of pixels, dots or lines, whic ...

Ray casting Ray casting is the methodological basis for 3D CAD/CAM solid modeling and image rendering. It is essentially the same as ray tracing (graphics), ray tracing for computer graphics where virtual light rays are "cast" or "traced" on their path from th ...

Ray marching Ray marching is a class of rendering methods for 3D computer graphics where rays are traversed iteratively, effectively dividing each ray into smaller ray segments, sampling some function at each step. For example, in volume ray casting the funct ...

Ray-traced ambient occlusion Ray-traced ambient occlusion is a computer graphics technique and ambient occlusion global illumination algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instru ...

* Ray tracing *

Real-time computer graphics Real-time computer graphics or real-time rendering is the sub-field of computer graphics focused on producing and analyzing images in real time. The term can refer to anything from rendering an application's graphical user interface ( GUI) to ...

Reflection (computer graphics) Reflection in computer graphics is used to render reflection (physics), reflective objects like mirrors and shiny surfaces. Accurate reflections are commonly computed using Ray tracing (graphics), ray tracing whereas approximate reflections can ...

Reflection mapping In computer graphics, reflection mapping or environment mapping is an efficient image-based lighting technique for approximating the appearance of a reflective surface by means of a precomputed texture. The texture is used to store the image o ...

Relief mapping (computer graphics) In computer graphics, relief mapping is a texture mapping technique first introduced in 2000 used to render the surface details of three-dimensional objects accurately and efficiently. It can produce accurate depictions of self-occlusion, self-sha ...

Render farm A render farm is a high-performance computer system, e.g. a computer cluster, built to render computer-generated imagery (CGI), typically for film and television visual effects. A render farm is different from a render wall, which is a network ...

Render output unit In computer graphics, the render output unit or raster operations pipeline (ROP) is a hardware component in modern graphics processing units (GPUs) and one of the final steps in the rendering process of modern graphics cards. The pixel pipeline ...

Rendering (computer graphics) Rendering is the process of generating a physically-based rendering, photorealistic or Non-photorealistic rendering, non-photorealistic image from input data such as 3D models. The word "rendering" (in one of its senses) originally meant the ...

Rendering equation In computer graphics, the rendering equation is an integral equation that expresses the amount of light leaving a point on a surface as the sum of emitted light and reflected light. It was independently introduced into computer graphics by David ...

Resel In image analysis, a resel (from ''res''olution ''el''ement) represents the actual spatial resolution in an image or a volumetric dataset. The number of resels in the image may be lower or equal to the number of pixel/voxels in the image. In an act ...

Resolution independence Resolution independence is where elements on a computer screen are rendered at sizes independent from the pixel grid, resulting in a graphical user interface that is displayed at a consistent physical size, regardless of the resolution of the sc ...

Retained mode Retained mode in computer graphics is a major pattern of API design in graphics libraries, in which * the graphics library, instead of the client, retains the scene (complete object model of the rendering primitives) to be rendered and * th ...

Reverse perspective Reverse perspective, also called inverse perspective,. inverted perspective, divergent perspective, or Byzantine perspective, is a form of perspective (graphical), perspective drawing where the objects depicted in a scene are placed between the ...

Reyes rendering Reyes rendering is a computer software architecture used in 3D computer graphics to render photo-realistic images. It was developed in the mid-1980s by Loren Carpenter and Robert L. Cook at Lucasfilm's Computer Graphics Research Group, which is ...

RGB color model The RGB color model is an additive color, additive color model in which the red, green, and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials ...

Run-length encoding Run-length encoding (RLE) is a form of lossless data compression in which ''runs'' of data (consecutive occurrences of the same data value) are stored as a single occurrence of that data value and a count of its consecutive occurrences, rather th ...

Scanline rendering Scanline rendering (also scan line rendering and scan-line rendering) is an algorithm for visible surface determination, in 3D computer graphics, that works on a row-by-row basis rather than a polygon-by-polygon or pixel-by-pixel basis. All of ...

Scene graph A scene graph is a general data structure commonly used by vector-based graphics editing applications and modern computer games, which arranges the logical and often spatial representation of a graphical scene. It is a collection of nodes in a g ...

Scientific visualization Scientific visualization ( also spelled scientific visualisation) is an interdisciplinary branch of science concerned with the visualization of scientific phenomena. Michael Friendly (2008)"Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, st ...

Screen space ambient occlusion Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) is a computer graphics technique for efficiently approximating the ambient occlusion effect in real time. It was developed by Vladimir Kajalin while working at Crytek and was used for the first time in 2007 by ...

Screen space directional occlusion Screen space directional occlusion (SSDO) is a computer graphics technique enhancing screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) by taking direction into account to sample the ambient light (both the light coming directly at an object, as well as the l ...

Scrolling In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, video games and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout ...

Self-shadowing Self-Shadowing is a computer graphics lighting effect, used in 3D rendering applications such as computer animation and video games. Self-shadowing allows non-static objects in the environment, such as game characters and interactive objects ...

Shader In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene—a process known as '' shading''. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of s ...

Shading Shading refers to the depiction of depth perception in 3D models (within the field of 3D computer graphics) or illustrations (in visual art) by varying the level of darkness. Shading tries to approximate local behavior of light on the object's ...

Shading language A shading language is a graphics programming language adapted to programming shader effects. Shading languages usually consist of special data types like "vector", "matrix", "color" and " normal". Offline rendering Shading languages used in of ...

Shadow mapping Shadow mapping or shadowing projection is a process by which shadows are added to 3D computer graphics. This concept was introduced by Lance Williams in 1978, in a paper entitled "Casting curved shadows on curved surfaces." Since then, it has b ...

Shadow volume Shadow volume is a technique used in 3D computer graphics to add shadows to a rendered scene. It was first proposed by Frank Crow in 1977 as the geometry describing the 3D shape of the region occluded from a light source. A shadow volume divides ...

Signed distance function In mathematics and its applications, the signed distance function or signed distance field (SDF) is the orthogonal distance of a given point ''x'' to the boundary of a set Ω in a metric space (such as the surface of a geometric shape), with t ...

Simplex noise Simplex noise is the result of an ''n''-dimensional noise function comparable to Perlin noise ("classic" noise) but with fewer directional artifacts, in higher dimensions, and a lower computational overhead. Ken Perlin designed the algorithm in ...

* Simulation noise *

Skeletal animation Skeletal animation or rigging is a technique in computer animation in which a character (or other articulated object) is represented in two parts: a polygonal or parametric mesh representation of the surface of the object, and a hierarchical set ...

Slab method In computer graphics, the slab method is an algorithm used to solve the ray-box intersection problem in case of an axis-aligned bounding box (AABB), i.e. to determine the intersection points between a ray and the box. Due to its efficient nature, ...

Soft-body dynamics Soft-body dynamics is a field of computer graphics that focuses on visually realistic physical simulations of the motion and properties of deformable objects (or ''soft bodies''). The applications are mostly in video games and films. Unlike in sim ...

Software rendering Software consists of computer programs that instruct the execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital computers in the mid-20th cen ...

Space partitioning In geometry, space partitioning is the process of dividing an entire space (usually a Euclidean space) into two or more disjoint subsets (see also partition of a set). In other words, space partitioning divides a space into non-overlapping regio ...

Sparse voxel octree A sparse voxel octree (SVO) is a 3D computer graphics rendering technique using a raycasting or sometimes a ray tracing approach into an octree data representation. The technique generally relies on generating and processing the hull of points ...

Spatial anti-aliasing In digital signal processing, spatial anti-aliasing is a technique for minimizing the distortion artifacts (aliasing) when representing a high-resolution image at a lower resolution. Anti-aliasing is used in digital photography, computer graphics ...

Spatial resolution In physics and geosciences, the term spatial resolution refers to distance between independent measurements, or the physical dimension that represents a pixel of the image. While in some instruments, like cameras and telescopes, spatial resoluti ...

Specular highlight A specular highlight is the bright spot of light that appears on shiny objects when illuminated (for example, see image on right). Specular highlights are important in 3D computer graphics, as they provide a strong visual cue for the shape of ...

Specularity Specularity is the visual appearance of specular reflections. In computer graphics In computer graphics, it means the quantity used in three-dimensional (3D) rendering which represents the amount of reflectivity a surface has. It is a key com ...

* Spherical harmonic lighting *

Spline (mathematics) In mathematics, a spline is a function defined piecewise by polynomials. In interpolating problems, spline interpolation is often preferred to polynomial interpolation because it yields similar results, even when using low degree polynomia ...

Sprite (computer graphics) In computer graphics, a sprite is a Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional bitmap that is integrated into a larger scene, most often in a 2D video game. Originally, the term ''sprite'' referred to fixed-sized objects composited together, by hardw ...

Stencil buffer A stencil buffer is an extra data buffer, in addition to the ''color buffer'' and '' Z-buffer'', found on modern graphics hardware. The buffer is per pixel and works on integer values, usually with a depth of one byte per pixel. The Z-buffe ...

Stereotomy (descriptive geometry) Stereotomy (Greek: στερεός (''stereós'') "solid" and τομή (''tomē'') "cut ") is the art and science of cutting three-dimensional solids into particular shapes. Typically this involves materials such as stone or wood which is cut to be ...

* Stratified sampling *

Subdivision surface In the field of 3D computer graphics, a subdivision surface (commonly shortened to SubD surface or Subsurf) is a curved Computer representation of surfaces, surface represented by the specification of a coarser polygon mesh and produced by a re ...

Subpixel rendering Subpixel rendering is a method used to increase the effective resolution of a color display device. It utilizes the composition of each pixel, which consists of three subpixels of which are red, green, and blue that can each be individually ad ...

Subsurface scattering Subsurface scattering (SSS), also known as subsurface light transport (SSLT), is a mechanism of light transport in which light that penetrates the surface of a translucent object is scattering, scattered by interacting with the Material (comput ...

Supersampling Supersampling or supersampling anti-aliasing (SSAA) is a spatial anti-aliasing method, i.e. a method used to remove aliasing (jagged and pixelated edges, colloquially known as "jaggies") from images rendered in computer games or other computer p ...

Swizzling (computer graphics) In computer graphics, swizzles are a class of operations that transform vectors by rearranging components. Swizzles can also project from a vector of one dimensionality to a vector of another dimensionality, such as taking a three-dimensional ve ...

T-spline In computer graphics, a T-spline is a mathematical model for defining freeform surfaces. A T-spline surface is a type of surface defined by a network of control points where a row of control points is allowed to terminate without traversing th ...

Technical drawing Technical drawing, drafting or drawing, is the act and discipline of composing drawings that visually communicate how something functions or is constructed. Technical drawing is essential for communicating ideas in industry and engineering. ...

Temporal anti-aliasing Temporal anti-aliasing (TAA), also known as TXAA (a proprietary technology) or TMAA/TSSAA (''Temporal Super-Sampling Anti-Aliasing''), is a spatial anti-aliasing technique for computer-generated video that combines information from past frames and ...

Tessellation (computer graphics) In computer graphics, tessellation is the dividing of datasets of polygons (sometimes called ''vertex sets'') presenting objects in a scene into suitable structures for Rendering (computer graphics), rendering. Especially for Real-time computer ...

Texel (graphics) In computer graphics, a texel, texture element, or texture pixel is the fundamental unit of a texture map. Textures are represented by arrays of texels representing the texture space, just as other images are represented by arrays of pixels ...

Texture atlas In computer graphics, a texture atlas (also called a spritesheet or an image sprite in 2D game development) is an image containing multiple smaller images, usually packed together to reduce overall dimensions. An atlas can consist of uniformly-siz ...

Texture compression Texture compression is a specialized form of image compression designed for storing texture maps in 3D computer graphics rendering systems. Unlike conventional image compression algorithms, texture compression algorithms are optimized for random ...

Texture filtering In computer graphics, texture filtering or texture smoothing is the method used to determine the texture color for a Texture mapping, texture mapped pixel, using the colors of nearby Texel (graphics), texels (ie. pixels of the texture). Filtering ...

Texture mapping Texture mapping is a term used in computer graphics to describe how 2D images are projected onto 3D models. The most common variant is the UV unwrap, which can be described as an inverse paper cutout, where the surfaces of a 3D model are cut ap ...

Texture mapping unit In computer graphics, a texture mapping unit (TMU) is a component in modern graphics processing units (GPUs). They are able to rotate, resize, and distort a bitmap image to be placed onto an arbitrary plane of a given 3D model as a texture, in ...

Thin lens In optics, a thin lens is a lens (optics), lens with a thickness (distance along the optical axis between the two surfaces of the lens) that is negligible compared to the radius of curvature (optics), radii of curvature of the lens surfaces. Len ...

Tiled rendering Tiled rendering is the process of subdividing a computer graphics image by a regular grid in optical space and rendering each section of the grid, or ''tile'', separately. The advantage to this design is that the amount of memory and bandwidth is ...

Tone mapping Tone mapping is a technique used in image processing and computer graphics to map one set of colors to another to approximate the appearance of high-dynamic-range (HDR) images in a medium that has a more limited dynamic range. Print-outs, C ...

Transform, clipping, and lighting Transform, clipping, and lighting (T&L or TCL) is a term used in computer graphics. Overview Transformation is the task of producing a two-dimensional view of a three-dimensional scene. Clipping means only drawing the parts of the scene that ...

Triangle mesh In computer graphics, a triangle mesh is a Types of mesh, type of polygon mesh. It comprises a set of triangles (typically in three dimensions) that are connected by their common Edge (geometry), edges or Vertex (geometry), vertices. Many gra ...

Triangle strip In computer graphics, a triangle strip is a subset of triangles in a triangle mesh with shared Vertex (geometry), vertices, and is a more Memory management, memory-efficient method of storing information about the mesh. They are more efficient tha ...

Trilinear filtering Trilinear filtering is an extension of the bilinear texture filtering method, which also performs linear interpolation between mipmaps. Bilinear filtering has several weaknesses that make it an unattractive choice in many cases: using it on a ...

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Unbiased rendering __NOTOC__ In computer graphics, unbiased rendering or photorealistic rendering are rendering techniques that avoid systematic errors, or statistical bias, in computing an image’s radiance. Bias in this context means inaccuracies like dimmer l ...

Uncanny valley The effect is a hypothesized psychological and aesthetic relation between an object's degree of resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to the object. The uncanny valley hypothesis predicts that an entity appearing almost huma ...

Unified shader model In the field of 3D computer graphics, the unified shader model (known in Direct3D 10 as " Shader Model 4.0") refers to a form of shader hardware in a graphical processing unit (GPU) where all of the shader stages in the rendering pipeline A ...

UV mapping UV mapping is the 3D modeling process of projecting a 3D model's surface to a 2D image for texture mapping. The letters "U" and "V" denote the axes of the 2D texture because "X", "Y", and "Z" are already used to denote the axes of the 3D object i ...

Value noise Value noise is a type of noise commonly used as a procedural texture primitive in computer graphics. It is conceptually different from, and often confused with gradient noise, examples of which are Perlin noise and Simplex noise. This method cons ...

Vanishing point A vanishing point is a point (geometry), point on the projection plane, image plane of a graphical perspective, perspective rendering where the two-dimensional perspective projections of parallel (geometry), parallel lines in three-dimensional ...

Vector graphics Vector graphics are a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector displ ...

Vector graphics editor A vector graphic editor is a computer program that enables its users to create, compose and edit images with the use of mathematical and geometrical commands rather than individual pixels. This software is used in creating high-definition Vector ...

Vertex (computer graphics) A vertex (plural vertices) in computer graphics is a data structure that describes certain attributes, like the position of a point in 2D or 3D space, or multiple points on a Computer representation of surfaces, surface. Application to 3D models ...

View factor Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers, and a major publisher of software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. As well as games, it also produced a large number of educational titles, extra computer languages and business and ut ...

Viewing frustum In 3D computer graphics, a viewing frustum or view frustum is the region of space in the modeled world that may appear on the screen; it is the field of view of a perspective virtual camera system. The view frustum is typically obtained by t ...

Viewport A viewport is a polygon viewing region in computer graphics. In computer graphics theory, there are two region-like notions of relevance when rendering some objects to an image. In textbook terminology, the ''world coordinate window'' is the area ...

Virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

Visual computing Visual computing is a generic term for all computer science disciplines dealing with images and 3D models, such as computer graphics, image processing, visualization, computer vision, virtual and augmented reality, video processing, and computat ...

Visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...

Volume rendering In scientific visualization and computer graphics, volume rendering is a set of techniques used to display a 2D projection of a 3D discretely sampled data set, typically a 3D scalar field. A typical 3D data set is a group of 2D slice image ...

Volumetric path tracing Volumetric path tracing is a method for rendering images in computer graphics which was first introduced by Lafortune and Willems. This method enhances the rendering of the lighting in a scene by extending the path tracing method with the effect of ...

Voronoi diagram In mathematics, a Voronoi diagram is a partition of a plane into regions close to each of a given set of objects. It can be classified also as a tessellation. In the simplest case, these objects are just finitely many points in the plane (calle ...

Voxel In computing, a voxel is a representation of a value on a three-dimensional regular grid, akin to the two-dimensional pixel. Voxels are frequently used in the Data visualization, visualization and analysis of medical imaging, medical and scient ...

Warnock algorithm The Warnock algorithm is a hidden surface algorithm invented by John Warnock that is typically used in the field of computer graphics. It solves the problem of rendering a complicated image by recursive subdivision of a scene until areas are ob ...

Wire-frame model In 3D computer graphics, a wire-frame model (also spelled wireframe model) is a visual representation of a three-dimensional (3D) physical object. It is based on a polygon mesh or a volumetric mesh, created by specifying each Edge (geometry ...

Xiaolin Wu's line algorithm Xiaolin Wu's line algorithm is an algorithm for line spatial anti-aliasing, antialiasing. Antialiasing technique Xiaolin Wu's line algorithm was presented in the article "An Efficient Antialiasing Technique" in the July 1991 issue of ''Computer ...

Z-buffering A z-buffer, also known as a depth buffer, is a type of data buffer used in computer graphics to store the depth information of fragments. The values stored represent the distance to the camera, with 0 being the closest. The encoding scheme may ...

Z-fighting Demonstration of z-fighting with multiple colors and textures over a grey background Z-fighting, also called stitching or planefighting, is a phenomenon in 3D rendering that occurs when two or more primitives have very similar distances to the ...

Z-order Z-order is an ordering of overlapping two-dimensional objects, such as windows in a stacking window manager, shapes in a vector graphics editor, or objects in a 3D application.Foley, James, Andries van Dam, Steven Feiner, and John Hughes (1987). ...

Z-order curve In mathematical analysis and computer science, functions which are Z-order, Lebesgue curve, Morton space-filling curve, Morton order or Morton code map multidimensional data to one dimension while preserving locality of the data points (two ...

See also