Lecture 0: Introduction & Orientation

Read the syllabus!

Review of OpenGL/Graphics

Rasterization

  1. Geometry comes down the pipeline
  2. Transformed to correct positions
  3. Each primitive is rasterized
    • Determine lighting at vertices
    • Linearly interpolate across the face
    • Use z-buffer to resolve depth

Phong Reflection

A closer look at “step 1”: How do we determine the lighting?

We have reflection models, e.g. the Phong Reflection Model. These are a local approximation of the way light interacts with the face.

We have ambient + diffuse + specular.

Ambient light is a hack to add a small amount of global illumination to the scene (and only depends on material properties).

Diffuse is light reflected in all directions - only depends on the orientation of the face and the light source.

Specular light is reflected off the surface like a mirror - in a straight line.

Where is the “shininess”. The larger is, the smaller the spot light is. Strongest when .

Local Approximation

The consequence: only “local” light approximated. What is global light?

Not impossible, but usually hacky and limited.

So, let’s explore a completely different rendering alternative: ray tracing.

Ray Tracer

General overview of program:

  1. read in scene description
  2. compute lighting based on this scene description
  3. output pixels (e.g. an image) based on the lighting you compute

Rasterization: process a bunch of data, use transforms to mimic 3D.

Ray tracing: closer to a simulation of how lights/cameras work.