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3-D Computer Graphics
A Mathematical Introduction with OpenGL
This book is an introduction to 3-D computer graphics with particular emphasis
on fundamentals and the mathematics underlying computer graphics. It includes
descriptions of how to use the cross-platform OpenGL programming environment.
It also includes source code for a ray tracing software package. (Accompanying
software is available freely from the book’s Web site.)
Topics include a thorough treatment of transformations and viewing, lighting
and shading models, interpolation and averaging, B´ezier curves and B-splines, ray
tracing and radiosity, and intersection testing with rays. Additional topics, covered
in less depth, include texture mapping and color theory. The book also covers some
aspects of animation, including quaternions, orientation, and inverse kinematics.
Mathematical background on vectors and matrices is reviewed in an appendix.
This book is aimed at the advanced undergraduate level or introductory graduate
level and can also be used for self-study. Prerequisites include basic knowledge of
calculus and vectors. The OpenGL programming portions require knowledge of
programming in C or C++. The more important features of OpenGL are covered
in the book, but it is intended to be used in conjunction with another OpenGL
programming book.
Samuel R. Buss is Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Univer-
sity of California, San Diego. With both academic and industrial expertise, Buss
has more than 60 publications in the fields of computer science and mathematical
logic. He is the editor of several journals and the author of a book on bounded
arithmetic. Buss has years of experience in programming and game development
and has acted as consultant for SAIC and Angel Studios.
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eBook (NetLibrary)
eBook (NetLibrary)
hardback
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To my family
Teresa, Stephanie, and Ian
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Contents
Preface page xi
I Introduction 1
I.1 Display Models 1
I.2 Coordinates, Points, Lines, and Polygons 4
I.3 Double Buffering for Animation 15
II Transformations and Viewing 17
II.1 Transformations in 2-Space 18
II.2 Transformations in 3-Space 34
II.3 Viewing Transformations and Perspective 46
II.4 Mapping to Pixels 58
III Lighting, Illumination, and Shading
67
III.1 The Phong Lighting Model 68
III.2 The Cook–Torrance Lighting Model 87
IV Averaging and Interpolation
99
IV.1 Linear Interpolation 99
IV.2 Bilinear and Trilinear Interpolation 107
IV.3 Convex Sets and Weighted Averages 117
IV.4 Interpolation and Homogeneous Coordinates 119
IV.5 Hyperbolic Interpolation 121
IV.6 Spherical Linear Interpolation 122

VIII.2 Nonuniform B-Splines 204
VIII.3 Examples of Nonuniform B-Splines 206
VIII.4 Properties of Nonuniform B-Splines 211
VIII.5 The de Boor Algorithm 214
VIII.6 Blossoms 217
VIII.7 Derivatives and Smoothness of B-Spline Curves 221
VIII.8 Knot Insertion 223
VIII.9 B´ezier and B-Spline Curves 226
VIII.10 Degree Elevation 227
VIII.11 Rational B-Splines and NURBS 228
VIII.12 B-Splines and NURBS Surfaces in OpenGL 229
VIII.13 Interpolating with B-Splines 229
IX Ray Tracing
233
IX.1 Basic Ray Tracing 234
IX.2 Advanced Ray Tracing Techniques 244
IX.3 Special Effects without Ray Tracing 252
X Intersection Testing 257
X.1 Fast Intersections with Rays 258
X.2 Pruning Intersection Tests 269
XI Radiosity 272
XI.1 The Radiosity Equations 274
XI.2 Calculation of Form Factors 277
XI.3 Solving the Radiosity Equations 282
XII Animation and Kinematics 289
XII.1 Overview 289
XII.2 Animation of Position 292
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Contents ix
XII.3 Representations of Orientations 295

methods for displaying large data sets comprehensibly and for showing the results of large-scale
scientific simulations.
The art and science of computer graphics have been evolving since the advent of computers
and started in earnest in the early 1960s. Since then, computer graphics has developed into a
rich, deep, and coherent field. The aim of this book is to present the mathematical foundations
of computer graphics along with a practical introduction to programming using OpenGL.
I believe that understanding the mathematical basis is important for any advanced use of
computer graphics. For this reason, this book attempts to cover the underlying mathematics
thoroughly. The principle guiding the selection of topics for this book has been to choose
topics that are of practical significance for computer graphics practitioners – in particular for
software developers. My hope is that this book will serve as a comprehensive introduction to
the standard tools used in this field and especially to the mathematical theory behind these tools.
About This Book
The plan for this book has been shaped by my personal experiences as an academic mathe-
matician and by my participation in various applied computer projects, including projects in
computer games and virtual reality. This book was started while I was teaching a mathematics
class at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), on computer graphics and geometry.
That course was structured as an introduction to programming 3-D graphics in OpenGL and
to the mathematical foundations of computer graphics. While teaching that course, I became
convinced of the need for a book that would bring together the mathematical theory underlying
computer graphics in an introductory and unified setting.
xi
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xii Preface
The other motivation for writing this book has been my involvement in several virtual reality
and computer game projects. Many of the topics included in this book are presented mainly
because I have found them useful in computer game applications. Modern-day computer games
and virtual reality applications are technically demanding software projects: these applications
require software capable of displaying convincing three-dimensional environments. Generally,
the software must keep track of the motion of multiple objects; maintain information about

strongly recommended that you try running the programs supplied with the book and write
some OpenGL programs of your own. Note that this book is intended to be read in conjunction
with a book on learning to program in OpenGL. A good source for learning OpenGL is the
comprehensive OpenGL Programming Guide (Woo et al., 1999), which is sometimes called
the “red book.” If you are learning OpenGL on your own for the first time, the OpenGL
Programming Guide may be a bit daunting. If so, the OpenGL SuperBible (Wright Jr., 1999)
may provide an easier introduction to OpenGL with much less mathematics. The book OpenGL:
A Primer (Angel, 2002) also gives a good introductory overview of OpenGL.
The outline of this book is as follows. The chapters are arranged more or less in the order
the material might be covered in a course. However, it is not necessary to read the material
in order. In particular, the later chapters can be read largely independently, with the exception
that Chapter VIII depends on Chapter VII.
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Preface xiii
Chapter I. Introduction. Introduces the basic concepts of computer graphics; drawing points,
lines, and polygons; modeling with polygons; animation; and getting started with OpenGL
programming.
Chapter II. Transformations and Viewing. Discusses the rendering pipeline, linear and affine
transformations, matrices in two and three dimensions, translations and rotations, homoge-
neous coordinates, transformations in OpenGL, viewing with orthographic and perspective
transformations, projective geometry, pixelization, Gouraud and scan line interpolation, and
the Bresenham algorithm.
Chapter III. Lighting, Illumination, and Shading. Addresses the Phong lighting model;
ambient, diffuse, and specular lighting; lights and material properties in OpenGL; and the
Cook–Torrance model.
Chapter IV. Averaging and Interpolation. Presents linear interpolation, barycentric coor-
dinates, bilinear interpolation, convexity, hyperbolic interpolation, and spherical linear inter-
polation. This is a more mathematical chapter with many tools that are used elsewhere in the
book. You may wish to skip much of this chapter on the first reading and come back to it as
needed.

xiv Preface
Exercises are scattered throughout the book, especially in the more introductory chapters.
These are often supplied with hints, and they should not be terribly difficult. It is highly
recommended that you do the exercises to master the material. A few sections in the book,
as well as some of the theorems, proofs, and exercises, are labeled with an asterisk (

). This
indicates that the material is optional, less important, or both and can be safely skipped without
affecting your understanding of the rest of the book. Theorems, lemmas, figures, and exercises
are numbered separately for each chapter.
Obtaining the Accompanying Software
All software examples discussed in this book are available for downloading from the Internet
at
/>The software is available as source files and as PC executables. In addition, complete Microsoft
Visual C++ project files are available.
The software includes several small OpenGL programs and a relatively large ray tracing
software package.
The software may be used without any restriction except that its use in commercial products
or any kind of substantial project must be acknowledged.
Getting Started with OpenGL
OpenGL is a platform-independent API (application programming interface) for rendering 3-D
graphics. A big advantage of using OpenGL is that it is a widely supported industry standard.
Other 3-D environments, notably Direct3D, have similar capabilities; however, Direct3D is
specific to the Microsoft Windows operating system.
The official OpenGL Web site is
. This site contains a huge
amount of material, but if you are just starting to learn OpenGL the most useful material is
probably the tutorials and code samples available at
/>The OpenGL programs supplied with this text use the OpenGL Utility Toolkit routines,
called GLUT for short, which is widely used and provides a simple-to-use interface for con-

One rather comprehensive textbook is the volume by Foley et al. (1990). Another excellent
recent book is M¨oller and Haines (1999). The articles by Blinn (1996; 1998) and Glassner
(1999) are also interesting.
Finally, an enormous amount of information about computer graphics theory and practice is
available on the Internet. There you can find examples of OpenGL programs and information
about graphics hardware as well as theoretical and mathematical developments. Much of this
can be found through your favorite search engine, but you may also use the ACM Transactions
on Graphics Web site
as a starting point.
For the Instructor
This book is intended for use with advanced junior- or senior-level undergraduate courses or
introductory graduate-level courses. It is based in large part on my teaching of computer graph-
ics courses at the upper division level and at the graduate level. In a two-quarter undergraduate
course, I cover most of the material in the book more or less in the order presented here.
Some of the more advanced topics would be skipped, however – most notably Cook–Torrance
lighting and hyperbolic interpolation – and some of the material on B´ezier and B-spline curves
and patches is best omitted from an undergraduate course. I also do not cover the more difficult
proofs in undergraduate courses.
It is certainly recommended that students studying this book get programming assignments
using OpenGL. Although this book covers much OpenGL material in outline form, students
will need to have an additional source for learning the details of programming in OpenGL.
Programming prerequisites include some experience in C, C++, or Java. (As we write this,
there is no standardized OpenGL API for Java; however, Java is close enough to C or C++ that
students can readily make the transition required for mastering the simple programs included
with this text.) The first quarters of my own courses have included programming assignments
first on two-dimensional graphing, second on three-dimensional transformations based on the
solar system exercise on page 40, third on polygonal modeling (students are asked to draw tori
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xvi Preface
of the type in Figure I.11(b)), fourth on adding materials and lighting to a scene, and finally

Rapp, Don Quach, Daryl Sterling, Aubin Whitley, and anonymous referees for corrections to
preliminary drafts of this book and Tak Chu, Craig Donner, Jason Eng, Igor Kaplounenko,
Alex Kulungowski, Allen Lam, Peter Olcott, Nevin Shenoy, Mara Silva, Abbie Whynot, and
George Yue for corrections incorporated into the second printing. Further thanks are due to
Cambridge University Press for copyediting and final typesetting. As much as I would like to
avoid it, the responsibility for all remaining errors is my own.
The figures in this book were prepared with several software systems. The majority of the
figures were created using van Zandt’s pstricks macro package for L
A
T
E
X. Some of the
figures were created with a modified version of Geuzaine’s program GL2PS for converting
OpenGL images into PostScript files. A few figures were created from screen dump bitmaps
and converted to PostScript images with Adobe Photoshop.
Partial financial support was provided by National Science Foundation grants DMS-
9803515 and DMS-0100589.
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I
Introduction
This chapter discusses some of the basic concepts behind computer graphics with particular
emphasis on how to get started with simple drawing in OpenGL. A major portion of the chapter
explains the simplest methods of drawing in OpenGL and various rendering modes. If this is
your first encounter with OpenGL, it is highly suggested that you look at the included sample
code and experiment with some of the OpenGL commands while reading this chapter.
The first topic considered is the different models for graphics displays. Of particular im-
portance for the topics covered later in the book is the idea that an arbitrary three-dimensional
geometrical shape can be approximated by a set of polygons – more specifically as a set of
triangles. Second, we discuss some of the basic methods for programming in OpenGL to dis-
play simple two- and three-dimensional models made from points, lines, triangles, and other

set to a brightness value. Thus, each pixel is actually formed from three colored dots. With a
magnifying glass, you can see the colors in the pixel as separate colors (see Figure I.1). (It is
best to try this with a low-resolution device such as a television; depending on the physical
design of the screen, you may see the separate colors in individual dots or in stripes.)
A second aspect of rectangular array model inaccuracy is the occasional use of subpixel
image addressing. For instance, laser printers and ink jet printers reduce aliasing problems, such
as jagged edges on lines and symbols, by micropositioning toner or ink dots. More recently,
some handheld computers (i.e., palmtops) are able to display text at a higher resolution than
would otherwise be possible by treating eachpixel as three independently addressable subpixels.
In this way, the device is able to position text at the subpixel level and achieve a higher level
of detail and better character formation.
In this book however, issues of subpixels will never be examined; instead, we will always
model a pixel as a single rectangular point that can be set to a desired color and brightness.
Sometimes the pixel basis of a computer graphics image will be important to us. In Section II.4,
we discuss the problem of approximating a straight sloping line with pixels. Also, when using
texture maps and ray tracing, one must take care to avoid the aliasing problems that can arise
with sampling a continuous or high-resolution image into a set of pixels.
We will usually not consider pixels at all but instead will work at the higher level of
polygonally based modeling. In principle, one could draw any picture by directly setting the
brightness levels for each pixel in the image; however, in practice this would be difficult and
time consuming. Instead, in most high-level graphics programming applications, we do not
have to think very much about the fact that the graphics image may be rendered using a
rectangular array of pixels. One draws lines, or especially polygons, and the graphics hardware
handles most of the work of translating the results into pixel brightness levels. A variety of
sophisticated techniques exist for drawing polygons (or triangles) on a computer screen as an
array of pixels, including methods for shading and smoothing and for applying texture maps.
These will be covered later in the book.
I.1.2 Vector Graphics
In traditional vector graphics, one models the image as a set of lines. As such, one is not
able to model solid objects, and instead draws two-dimensional shapes, graphs of functions,

traditional oscilloscope is also an example of a vector graphics display device.
Vector graphics displays and pixel-based displays use very different representations of
images. In pixel-based systems, the screen image will be stored as a bitmap, namely, as a table
containing all the pixel colors. A vector graphics system, on the other hand, will store the
image as a list of commands – for instance as a list of pen up, pen down, and move commands.
Such a list of commands is called a display list.
Nowadays, pixel-based graphics hardware is very prevalent, and thus even graphics sys-
tems that are logically vector based are typically displayed on hardware that is pixel based.
The disadvantage is that pixel-based hardware cannot directly draw arbitrary lines and must
approximate lines with pixels. On the other hand, the advantage is that more sophisticated
figures, such as filled regions, can be drawn.
Modern vector graphics systems incorporate more than just lines and include the ability to
draw curves, text, polygons, and other shapes such as circles and ellipses. These systems also
have the ability to fill in or shade a region with a color or a pattern. They generally are restricted
to drawing two-dimensional figures. Adobe’s PostScript language is a prominent example of a
modern vector graphics system.
I.1.3 Polygonal Modeling
One step up, in both abstraction and sophistication, is the polygonal model of graphics images. It
is very common for three-dimensional geometric shapes to be modeled first as a set of polygons
and then mapped to polygonal shapes on a two-dimensional display. The basic display hardware
is generally pixel based, but most computers now have special-purpose graphics hardware for
processing polygons or, at the very least, triangles. Graphics hardware for rendering triangles
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4 Introduction
is also used in modern computer game systems; indeed, the usual measure of performance for
graphics hardware is the number of triangles that can be rendered per second. At the time this
book is being written, nominal peak performance rates of relatively cheap hardware are well
above one million polygons per second!
Polygonal-based modeling is used in nearly every three-dimensional computer graphics
systems. It is a central tool for the generation of interactive three-dimensional graphics and is

)or
3-space (R
3
) and to have OpenGL automatically map the points into the proper location in the
graphics image.
In the two-dimensional xy-plane, also called R
2
, a position is set by specifying its x- and
y-coordinates. The usual convention (see Figure I.3) is that the x-axis is horizontal and pointing
to the right and the y-axis is vertical and pointing upwards.
In three-dimensional space R
3
, positions are specified by triples a, b, c giving the x-, y-,
and z-coordinates of the point. However, the convention for how the three coordinate axes
are positioned is different for computer graphics than is usual in mathematics. In computer
graphics, the x-axis points to the right, the y-axis points upwards, and the z-axis points toward
the viewer. This is different from our customary expectations. For example, in calculus, the x-,
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I.2 Coordinates, Points, Lines, and Polygons 5
y
x
a
b
a,

b
Figure I.3. The xy-plane,
R
2
, and the point a, b.

glVertex* command that can be used instead.
2
For instance, the “f,”
1
We describe OpenGL commands with simplified prototypes (and often do not give the officially correct
prototype). In this case, the specifiers “
float” describe the types of the arguments to glVertex3f()
but should be omitted in your C or C++ code.
2
There is no function named glVertex*: we use this notation to represent collectively the many
variations of the
glVertex commands.
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6 Introduction
z
y
x
a
b
c
a,


c
b,
Figure I.4. The coordinate axes in
R
3
and the point a, b, c.Thez-axis is pointing toward the viewer.
which stands for “float,” can be replaced by “

following functions:
glPointSize(n); // Points are n pixels in diameter
glEnable(GL_POINT_SMOOTH);
glHint(GL_POINT_SMOOTH_HINT, GL_NICEST);
glEnable(GL_BLEND);
glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);
3
To be completely accurate, we should remark that, to help portability and future compatibility, OpenGL
uses the types
GLfloat, GLshort, GLint, and GLdouble, which are generally defined to be the
same as
float, short, int, and double. It would certainly be better programming practice to use
OpenGL’s data types; however, the extra effort is not really worthwhile for casual programming.
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I.2 Coordinates, Points, Lines, and Polygons 7
x
y
12
1
2
Figure I.5. Three points drawn in two dimensions.
(In the first line, a number such as 6 for n may give good results.) The
SimpleDraw program
already includes the preceding function calls, but they have been commented out. If you are
lucky, executing these lines in the program before the drawing code will cause the program to
draw nice round dots for points. However, the effect of these commands varies with different
implementations of OpenGL, and thus you may see square dots instead of round dots or even
no change at all.
The
SimpleDraw program is set up so that the displayed graphics image is shown from the

);
glVertex3f( x
4
, y
4
, z
4
);
glEnd();
Letting v
i
be the vertex x
i
, y
i
, z
i
, the commands above draw a line from v
1
to v
2
and an-
other from v
3
to v
4
. More generally, you may specify an even number, 2n, of points, and the
GL_LINES option will draw n lines connecting v
2i−1
to v

6
GL LINES
v
1
v
2
v
3
v
4
v
5
v
6
GL LINE STRIP
v
1
v
2
v
3
v
4
v
5
v
6
GL LINE LOOP
Figure I.6. The three line-drawing modes as controlled by the parameter to glBegin.
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