CS602 - Computer Graphics http://www.vustudents.

net Glossary
Three Dimension Pipeline (3D Pipeline) :
The process
of 3D
graphics can
be divided
into three-
stages:
tessellation,
geometry,
and
rendering. In
the
tessellation
stage, a
described
model of an
object is
created, and
the object is
then
converted to
a set of
polygons.
The
geometry
stage
includes
transformati
on, lighting,
and setup.
The
rendering
stage, which
is critical for
3D image
quality,
creates a
two
dimensional
display from
the polygons
created in
the
geometry
stage.
Alpha The real world is composed of transparent, translucent, and opaque objects.
Blending : Alpha blending is a technique for adding transparency information for
translucent objects. It is implemented by rendering polygons through a stipple
mask whose on-off density is proportional to the transparency of the object. The
resultant color of a pixel is a combination of the foreground and background
color. Typically, alpha has a normalized value of 0 to 1 for each color pixel. new
pixel = (alpha)(pixel A color) + (1 - alpha)(pixel B color)
Alpha An extra Color channel to hold transparency information; pixels become quad
Buffer : values (RGBA). In a 32-bit frame buffer there are 24 bits of color, 8 each for red,
green, and blue, along with an 8-bit alpha channel.
Anti- Anti-aliasing is sub pixel interpolation, a technique that makes edges appear to
aliasing : have better resolution.
Atmospheric Effects, such as fog and depth cueing that improve the rendering of real-world
Effect : environments.
Bitmap : A Bitmap is a pixel by pixel image.
Bilinear Bilinear filtering is a method of anti-aliasing texture maps. A texture-aliening

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Filtering : artifact occurs due to sampling on a finite pixel grid. Point-sampled telexes jump
from one pixel to another at random times. This aliening is very noticeable on
slowly rotating or moving polygons. The texture image jumps and shears along
pixel boundaries. To eliminate this problem, bilinear filtering takes a weighted
average of four adjacent texture pixels to create a single telex.
BitBLTs : The BitBLT is the single most important acceleration function for windowed GUI
environments. A BitBLT is simply the movement of a block of data from one
place to another, taking into account the special requirements and
arrangements of the graphics memory. For example, this function is utilized
every time a window is moved; in which case, the BitBLT is a simple Pixel Block
Transfer. More complicated cases may occur where some transformation of the
source data is to occur, such as in a Color Expanded Block Transfer, where
each monochromatic bit in the source is expanded to the color in the foreground
or background register before being written to the display.
Blending : Blending is the combining of two or more objects by adding them on a pixel-by-
pixel basis.
Bus A feature of PCI buses that allows a card with this feature to retrieve data
Mastering : directly from system memory without any interaction with the host CPU
Chroma Chroma Keying or texture transparency is the ability to recognize a key color
Keying : within a texture map and make it transparent during the texture mapping
process. Since not all objects are easily modeled with polygons, chroma keying
is used to include complex objects in a scene as texture maps.
Depth Depth cueing is the lowering of intensity as objects move away from the
Cueing : viewpoint.
Dithering : Dithering is a technique for archiving 24-bit quality in 8 or 16-bit frame buffers.
Dithering uses two colors to create the appearance of a third, giving a smooth
appearance to an otherwise abrupt transition.

Double A method of using two buffers, one for display and the other for rendering. While
Buffering : one of the buffers is being displayed, the other buffer is operated on by a
rendering engine. When the new frame is rendered, the two buffers are
switched. The viewer sees a perfect image all the time.
DRAM : Dynamic Random Access Memory is the memory at any location in a computer
that can be accessed immediately for reading and writing operations.
Hexadecimal 16 digits, 0-9 and A-F used to define color values in HTML.
:
Hue : A specific color, such as red or green.
ICO : Icon. Standard format for icon files.
IFF : Interchange File Format. The Amiga Interchange File Format is used for
working with Video Toaster and transferring files to and from the Commodore
Amiga system. It supports RGB, indexed-color, grayscale and Bitmap color
modes. It does not support alpha channels.
Illustration : A diagram, drawing, photograph, etc. which further explains or clarify the
information contained in the surrounding body of text.
JPG (JPEG) Joint Photographic Experts Group. A commonly used graphics file format that
: uses lossy compression. It supports up to 24 bit color. Its small size makes it
ideal for web graphics.
L*a*b* color Based on the model proposed by the Commission Internationale d'Eclairage
model : (CIE) in 1931 as an international standard for color measurement. It's designed
to be device independent; creating consistent color whatever the device (such
as monitor, printer, computer, or scanner) used to create or output an image.
L*a*b color consists of a luminance or lightness component (L) and two
chromatic components: the a component (from green to red) and the b
component (from blue to yellow). In 1976, this model was refined and named
CIE L*a*b.
LZW : Lemple-Zif-Welch. A lossless compression technique supported by TIFF, PDF,
GIF and Postscript file formats. It's most useful in compressing images that
contain large areas of single color, such as screenshots or simple paint images.

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Line art : Art that contains no graded tones. Usually black on white (as in comic manga)
or solid color on white. In either case there are no middle tones.
lossy : Image compression techniques that remove detail as they reduce file size.
pixel : picture element. The smallest element that can be independently assigned
color.
saturation : The amount of color.
TGA : Targa. Graphic file format that supports any bit depth, and includes features
such as alpha channels, gamma settings and built in thumbnails.
Computer Computer vision, sometimes called image understanding, describes the
Vision : automatic deduction of the structure and the properties of a possibly dynamic
three-dimensional world from either a single or multiple two-dimensional images
of the world.
lossless : Image compression techniques that don't remove detail as they reduce file size
Macromedia A family of programs used for graphics and web development. They produce
: programs such as Dreamweaver and Flash. Macromedia purchased eHelp,
makers of RoboHelp, in 2003.
moire' : A shimmering 'interference' pattern produced when two geometrically regular
patterns are superimposed.
multimedia An application or presentation that uses any combination of animation, audio,
: images, text, and video to deliver information to an audience.
OpenOffice.org A suite of freeware productivity applications offered by OpenOffice.org that
(OOo) : includes Writer (for word processing and document layout), Calc (for
spreadsheets), Draw (for graphics and illustrations), and Impress (for
presentations). The software is as robust as for-profit suites, such as
Microsoft Office.
PCX : Commonly used by IBM PC-compatible computers. It supports RGB, indexed-
color, grayscale and Bitmap color modes. It does not support alpha channels.
PCX supports the RLE compression method
PDF : Portable Document Format. Computer file format that contains vector and
bitmap graphics, and can contain electronic document search/navigation
features. The format allows for easy sharing of files between platforms.
PICT : Apple graphic file format. It can include bitmapped or vector images, and can
use different compression schemes. It's available only for Apple.
PNG : Portable Network Graphics. Developed as a patent-free alternative to GIF, it's
used for losslessly compressing and displaying images on the Internet. It
supports 24-bit images and produces background transparency without jagged
edges. It supports grayscale and RGB color modes with a single alpha channel,
and Bitmap and indexed-color modes without alpha channels.
PSD : Photoshop native file format. It contains layer and transparency information.
primitive : A point, a line, a polygon, a bitmap or an image.
RGB (red, A color model. A large percentage of the visible spectrum can be represented by
green, blue) mixing red, green and blue (RGB) in various proportions and intensities. Where
color model the colors overlap, they create cyan, magenta, and yellow. RGB colors are
: known as addative colors because they combine to form white. RGB colors are
used for lighting, video and monitors.
RLE : Run Length Encoding. A lossless compression technique supported by
Photoshop and TIFF file formats as well as some common Windows file
formats.
rasterize : The process of converting a projected point, line, polygon, or the pixels of a
bitmap or image to fragments, each corresponding to a pixel in the framebuffer.
register : The correct alignment of colors during printing.
register A symbol defining the correct alignment of overlay copy and color during
mark : printing.
resolution : For a CRT, the maximum number of displayable pixels in the horizontal and
vertical directions. For a printer or plotter, the number of pixels per inch.
rotation : A geometric transformation that causes points to be re-oriented about an axis.
SVG : Scalable Vector Graphics. Graphic file format developed for the web that uses
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vector graphics. The format produces higher resolution graphics with smaller file
sizes.
SDA : Draw document. Draw is the graphics application in the OpenOffice.org suite.
subtractive Cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y). These colors combine to absorb all
colors : color and produce a muddy brown color. Black is added to produce pure black.
Also known as CMYK.
TIF (TIFF) : Tagged Image File Format. Graphics file format used to store images from
scanners and video devices. It's the most common file format used in printing.
true color A 24-plane graphics subsystem which produces the complete range of 16.7
system : million available colors.
vector Images determined by mathematical functions utilizing besier curves. Vector
graphics : graphics provide more flexibility for scaling than raster graphics.
Unit The vector having Unit Magnitude.
Vector :
WMF : Windows metaFile. Standard Windows graphics format supported by most
Windows software.
XSL : Extensible Style Language
Y2K : Year 2000
MPEG : The acronym for Moving Pictures Expert Group, MPEG is an international
standard for video compression and desktop movie presentation. A special
viewing application is needed to run MPEG files on your computer.
Hypermedia The hypertext concept extended to include linked multiple media.
:
Image The enhancement or other manipulation of an image--the result of which is
Processing usually another image.
:
XHTML : Extensible HyperText Markup Language
QIF : Quicken Import File/Interchange Format (file name extension)
2D Displayed representation of a scene or an object along two axes of reference:
Graphics : height and width (x and y).
Two Displayed representation of a scene or an object along two axes of reference:
Dimension height and width (x and y).
Graphics
(2D
Graphics) :
Three Displayed representation of a scene or an object that appears to have three
Dimension axes of reference: height, width, and depth (x, y, and z).
Graphics
(3D
Graphics) :
EDO A type of DRAM that has enhanced readability in the Extended-Data-Out mode.
DRAM :
Flat The flat shading method is also called constant shading. For rendering, it
Shading : assigns a uniform color throughout an entire polygon. This shading results in
the lowest quality, an object surface with a faceted appearance and a visible
underlying geometry that looks 'blocky'.
Fog : Fog is the blending of an object with a fixed color as its pixels become farther
away from the viewpoint.
Gamma : The characteristics of displays using phosphors (as well as some cameras) are
nonlinear. A small change in voltage when the voltage level is low produces a
change in the output display brightness level; but this same small change in
voltage at a high voltage level will not produce the same magnitude of change
in the brightness output. This effect, or actually the difference between what you
should have and what you actually measured, is known as gamma.
Gamma Before being displayed, linear RGB data must be processed (gamma corrected)
Correction : to compensate for the gamma (nonlinear characteristics) of the display.
Gouraud Gouraud shading, one of the most popular smooth shading algorithms, is
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Shading : named after its French originator, Henri Gouraud. Gouraud shading, or color
interpolation, is a process by which color information is interpolated across the
face of the polygon to determine the colors at each pixel. It assigns color to
every pixel within each polygon based on linear interpolation from the polygon's
vertices. This method improves the 'blocky' (see Flat Shading) look and
provides an appearance of plastic or metallic surfaces.
Hidden Hidden Surface Removal or visible surface determination entails displaying only
Surface those surfaces that are visible to a viewer because objects are a collection of
Removal : surfaces or solids.
Interpolation Interpolation is a mathematical way of regenerating missing or needed
: information. For example, an image needs to be scaled up by a factor of two,
from 100 pixels to 200 pixels. The missing pixels are generated by
interpolating between the two pixels that are on either side of the pixel that
needs to be generated. After all of the 'missing' pixels have been interpolated,
200 pixels exist where only 100 existed before, and the image is twice as big
as it used to be.

Lighting : There are many techniques for creating realistic graphical effects to simulate a
real-life 3-D object on a 2-D display. One technique is lighting. Lighting creates
a real-world environment by means of rendering the different grades of
darkness and brightness of an object's appearance to make the object look
solid.
Line A line buffer is a memory buffer used to hold one line of video. If the horizontal
Buffer : resolution of the screen is 640 pixels and RGB is used as the color space, the
line buffer would have to be 640 locations long by 3 bytes wide. This amounts to
one location for each pixel and each color plane. Line buffers are typically used
in filtering algorithms.
MIP Multum in Parvum (Latin) means 'many in one'. A method of increasing the
Mapping : quality of a texture map by applying different-resolution texture maps for
different objects in the same image, depending on their size and depth. If a
texture-mapped polygon is smaller than the texture image itself, the texture map
will be undersampled during rasterization. As a result, the texture mapping will
be noisy and 'sparkly'. The purpose of MIP mapping is to remove this effect.
Occlusion : The effect of one object in 3-D space blocking another object from view.
Palletized Palletized Texture means compressed texture formats, such as 1-, 2-, 4-, and 8-
Texture : bit instead of 24-bit; this allows more textures to be stored in less memory.
Perspective A particular way to do texture mapping; it is extremely important for creating a
Correction : realistic image. It takes into account the effect of the Z value in a scene while
mapping texels onto the surface of polygons. As a 3D object moves away from
the viewer, the length and height of the object become compressed, making it
appear shorter. Without perspective correction, objects will appear to shift and
'tear' in an unrealistic way. True perspective correction is that the rate of change
per pixel of texture is proportional to the depth. Since it requires a division per
pixel, perspective correction is very computing intensive.
Phong Phong shading is a sophisticated smooth shading method, originated by Phong
Shading : Bui-tuong. The Phong shading algorithm is best known for its ability to render
precise, realistic specula highlights. During rendering, Phong shading achieves
excellent realism by calculating the amount of light on the object at tiny points
across the entire surface instead of at the vertices of the polygons. Each pixel
representing the image is given its own color based on the lighting model
applied at that point. Phong shading requires much more computation for the
hardware than Gouraud shading.
Projection : The process of reducing three dimensions to two dimensions for display is
called Projection. It is the mapping of the visible part of a three dimensional
object onto a two dimension screen.
Rasterization Translating an image into pixels.
:

Rendering : The process of creating life-like images on a screen using mathematical models

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and formulas to add shading, color, and lamination to a 2D or 3D wireframe.
Rendering "Rendering Engine" generically applies to the part of the graphics engine that
Engine : draws 3D primitives, usually triangles or other simple polygons. In most
implementations, the rendering engine is responsible for interpolation of edges
and "filling in" the triangle.
Scissors Test pixel coordinates against clip rectangles and reject them if outside.
Clip :
Set-up A set-up engine allows drivers to pass polygons to the rendering engine in the
Engine : form of raw vertex information, subpixel polygon addresses. Whereas, most
common designs force the host CPU to pre-process polygons for the rendering
engine in terms of delta values for edges, color, and texture. Thus, a set-up
engine moves processing from the host CPU to the graphics chip, reducing bus
bandwidth requirements by 30% for small, randomly placed triangles and by
proportionately more for larger polygons.
SDRAM : Synchronous DRAM is a type of DRAM to which reads or writes can be
performed synchronously with the memory clock and at much higher speeds
than with Fast-Page or EDO DRAM.
SGRAM : Synchronous Graphics Random Access memory (SGRAM) is a type of memory
that is optimized for graphics use. SGRAM is capable of running at much higher
speeds than fast page or EDO DRAM. SGRAM is able to execute a small
number of frequently executed operations, such as buffer clears, specific to
graphics applications independently of the controller.
Span : In raster graphics architecture a primitive is formed by scan conversion where
each scan line intersects the primitive at two ends, P left and P right. A
contiguous sequence of pixels on the scan line between P left and P right is
called a Span. Each pixel within the span contains the z, R, G, and B data
values.
Tessellation Processing 3D graphics can be pipelined into three-stages: tessellation,
: geometry, and rendering. Tessellation is the process of subdividing a surface
into smaller shapes. To describe object surface patterns, tessellation breaks
down the surface of an object into manageable polygons. Triangles or
quadrilaterals are two usually used polygons in drawing graphical objects
because computer hardware can easy manipulate and calculate these two
simple polygons. An object divided into quads and subdivided into triangles for
convenient calculation.
Texture An interpolation technique used to remove texture distortion, staircasing or
Anti- jagged edges, at the edges of an object.
aliasing :
Texture Removing the undesirable distortion of a raster image, also called aliasing
Filtering : artifacts, such as sparkles and blockiness, through interpolation of stored
texture images.
Texture Texture mapping is based on a stored bitmap consisting of texture pixels, or
Mapping : texels. It consists of wrapping a texture image onto an object to create a
realistic representation of the object in 3D space. The object is represented by a
set of polygons, usually triangles. The advantage is complexity reduction and
rendering speed, because only one texel read is required for each pixel being
written to the frame buffer. The disadvantage is the blocky image that results
when the object moves.
Transformation Change of coordinates; a series of mathematical operations that act on
: output primitives and geometric attributes to convert them from modeling
coordinates to device coordinates.
Tri-linear Based on bilinear filtering, trilinear filtering takes the weighted average of two
Filtering : levels of bilinear filtering results to create a single telex. The resultant graphics
image is smoother and less flashy.
Tri-linear A method of reducing aliasing artifacts within texture maps by applying a
MIP bilinear filter to four texels from the two nearest MIP maps and then
Mapping : interpolating between the two.
Z-buffer : A part of off-screen memory that holds the distance from the viewpoint for each
pixel, the Z-value. When objects are rendered into a 2D frame buffer, the

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rendering engine must remove hidden surfaces.
Z- A process of removing hidden surfaces using the depth value stored in the Z-
buffering : buffer. Before bringing in a new frame, the rendering engine clears the buffer,
setting all Z-values to 'infinity'. When rendering objects, the engine assigns a Z-
value to each pixel: the closer the pixel to the viewer, the smaller the Z value.
When a new pixel is rendered, its depth is compared with the stored depth in
the Z-buffer. The new pixel is written into the frame buffer only if its depth value
is less than the stored one.
Z-sorting : A process of removing hidden surfaces by sorting polygons in back-to-front
order prior to rendering. Thus, when the polygons are rendered, the forward-
most surfaces are rendered last. The rendering results are correct unless
objects are close to or intersect each other. The advantage is not requiring
memory for storing depth values. The disadvantage is the cost in more CPU
cycles and limitations when objects penetrate each other.
AI : Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator native file format.
ARB : Architecture Review Board. An independent consortium that governs OpenGL
specifications, defines conformance tests and approves OpenGL
enhancements. The board includes representatives from companies such as
3Dlabs, Compaq, Evans & Sutherland, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Intergraph,
NVIDIA, Microsoft, and SGI.
additive The additive colors are red, green, and blue. Adding these colors together
colors : creates white (all light reflects back to the eye).
Adobe : A family of programs used for electronic, web, and print publishing. Adobe
produces great programs such as Photoshop, GoLive, and FrameMaker.
aliasing : Visual artifacts produced in graphics images that use pixels for display. One
example of aliasing is jagged edges on curved lines.
alpha : A fourth color component in the RGB color model representing opacity. Alpha
values can range from completely transparent to completely opaque.
animated Solid-color motion graphic file format that doesn't include audio. It's best suited
GIF : for small frame sizes, and ideal for use on the web.
bleed : Printing that extends to the edge of a sheet or page of paper after it has been
trimmed.
butt : When two or more art or color elements meet edge to edge.

CCITT : A family of lossless compression techniques for black-and-white images. It's

supported by PDF and Postscript file formats. (CCITT is an abbreviation for the
French spelling of International Telegraph and Telekeyed Consultive
Committee.)

CMYK : Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, black. The subtractive colors. Cyan (C), magenta (M),
and yellow (Y) combine to absorb all color and produce a muddy brown. Black
(K) ink is added to produce a true black. (K is used instead of B to avoid
confusion with blue.) Combining these inks to reproduce color is called four-
color process printing.
color A single value that represents a color by name, rather than by value.
index :
color map : A table showing index-to-RGB mapping that's accessed by display hardware.
Each color index is read from a color buffer, converted to an RGB triple by
lookup in the color map then sent to the monitor.
color model Models used to describe and reproduce color.
:
compression Hardware and software techniques that reduce the storage space required by
: bitmap image data. There are two common techniques. The first, lossless,
compresses image data without removing detail. The second, lossy,
compresses images by removing detail.
DCS : Desktop Color Separations. A version of the standard EPS format developed by
Quark. The DCS 1.0 format supports CMYK files without alpha channels and
clipping paths. The DCS 2.0 format supports multi-channel and CMYK files with
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a single alpha channel, clipping paths and multiple spot channels.
dpi : dots per inch. The display resolution of devices such as monitors or printers.
DWG : AutoCAD Drawing. Standard file format for saving vector graphics created in
AutoCAD.
EMF : Enhanced metaFile. Graphic file format available for Windows and WinNT. It
saves both vector and pixel information
EPS : Encapsulated Postscript. Computer file containing Postscript commands with
images.
extrusion : Extending a 2D object into 3D space by adding a z plane.
FLA : Flash Movie. Standard format for Flash movies.
UC2 : Compressed File (file name extension) [UltraCompressor]
X2D : Hexadecimal to Decimal [REXX]
BMP : Bitmap. A standard Windows uncompressed image format. It supports RGB,
indexed-color, grayscale, and Bitmap color modes. It doesn't support alpha
channels.
GIF : Graphics Interchange Format. A common file format used to display indexed-
color graphics and images for HTML documents. It can display interlaced lines
of an image as it downloads. It can also store multiple bitmaps in one file,
producing animated GIFs. GIF 89a supports transparency.
GZ : GIMP image file
graphics Software that generates interactive 2D and 3D graphics. Examples of graphics
engine : engines are Direct3D and OpenGL.
graphics A tool set for application programmers. It usually includes a defined set of
library : primitives and function calls that enable the programmer to bypass many low-
level programming tasks.
graphics A sequence of operations that creates an image from user defined settings to
pipeline : final output. The pipeline determines how color information and geometric
coordinates are processed in the hardware and software.
HSB : hue, saturation, brightness. Based on the human perception of color, the HSB
model describes three fundamental characteristics of color. Hue is the color
reflected from or transmitted through an object, such as red, green or blue. It's
measured as a location on the color wheel and is expressed as a degree
between 0 and 360 on that wheel. Saturation, also called chroma, is the
strength or purity of the color. Saturation represents the amount of gray in
proportion to the hue and is measured as a percentage from 0% (gray) to 100%
(fully saturated). Brightness is the relative lightness or darkness of the color,
usually measured as a percentage from 0% (black) to 100% (white).
Image : A digitally sampled picture.
Scene : The "reality" from which an image was taken.
Transfer The Fourier transform of an imaging system
Function :
Modulation The magnitude part of a Transfer Function
Transfer
Function :
Phase The phase part of the Transfer Function
Transfer
Function :
Scale An image (or function of an image) as measured at multiple scales.
Space :
Laplacian : Second spatial derivative.
Binary A strictly black and white image (0s and 1s). One bit of information per pixel.
Image :
Grayscale An image consisting of scalar values representing intensity. These are usually
Image : stored as one byte per pixel (256 levels) or two bytes per pixel (65,536 levels).
Range An image whose values represent distance from the imaging device
Image :

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Sampling : The process of recording the value of some function only at discrete points in the
domain.

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