Software Engineering and Computer Games

24.2. The graphics pipeline

In graphics the word ‘render’ means the process of converting information about geometric objects into a visual image on your computer screen. Rendering a scene is a multi-step process which is often described in terms of a graphics pipeline.

At one end of the pipeline we feed in polygon vertices, color information about the objects in our scene, bitmaps to paint onto some of the scene objects or use as backgrounds, and perhaps some locations of lights. At the other end of the polygon a rendered two-dimensional color image appears in a memory location called the frame buffer. The pipeline is rudimentary in two-dimensional graphics, and is shown in Figure 24.2.

Figure 24.2. A 2D graphics pipeline

In two dimensions ...