Introduction to Computer Graphics

GAMES101, Lingqi Yan, UC Santa Barbara

Lecture 10:
Geometry 1 (Introduction)

http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~lingqi/teaching/games101.html
 Announcements
• Homework 3
- The framework has been updated

- Together with an “FAQ” section in the BBS

• New TAs
- Peng Yu ( ) BUAA y2505418927@gmail.com

- Wenxian Guo ( ) ZJU wxguojlu@hotmail.com

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 Last Lectures
• Shading 1 & 2
- Blinn-Phong reflectance model

- Shading models / frequencies

- Graphics Pipeline

- Texture mapping

• Shading 3
- Barycentric coordinates

- Texture antialiasing (MIPMAP)

- Applications of textures

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Last Lectures

today
 Today
• Applications of textures

• Introduction to geometry (2nd part of this course!)

- Examples of geometry

- Various representations of geometry

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Applications of Textures
 Many, Many Uses for Texturing

In modern GPUs, texture = memory + range query (filtering)

• General method to bring data to fragment calculations
Many applications
• Environment lighting
• Store microgeometry
• Procedural textures
• Solid modeling
• Volume rendering
•…

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 Environment Map

[Blinn & Newell 1976]

Light from the environment Rendering with the environment

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 Environmental Lighting

Environment map (left) used to render realistic lighting

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 Spherical Environment Map

Hand with Reflecting Sphere. M. C. Escher, 1935. lithograph Light Probes, Paul Debevec

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 Spherical Map — Problem

Prone to distortion (top and bottom parts)!

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 Cube Map

(u, v) = (1, 1)
x=y=z

right face has

x > |y| and
x > |z|

(u, v) = (0, 0)
x = –y = –z

A vector maps to cube point along that direction.

The cube is textured with 6 square texture maps.

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 [Emil Persson]

Much less distortion!

CS184/284A Need dir->face computation

Ren Ng
 In an earlier paper 121, the author described
This effect might be desirable for some the effect of aliasing on images made with color
applications but undesirable for others. A scale texture mapping. The same problems can arise with

Textures can affect shading!

invariant perturbation, D', must scale at the same this new form. That is, undesirable artifacts can
rate as N. An obvious choice for this is enter the image in regions where the texture
pattern maps into a small screen region. The
D' = a D INI/IDI solution applied to color textures was to average
the texture pattern over the region corresponding
50 ID’1 = a INI to each picture element in the final image. The

• Textures doesn’t have to only represent colors

bump texture definition function, however, does
where a is independent of scales in P. The value not have a linear relationship to the intensity of
of a is then the tangent of the effective rotation the final image. If the bump texture is averaged
angle. the effect will be to smooth out the bumps rather
- What
tan+' =ifID'l/lNl
it stores
= a the height / normal?
than average the intensities. The correct
solution to this problem would be to compute the
intensities at some high sub-pixel resolution and
choice is a- generalization
This can be defined in various ways. One simple average them. Simply filtering the bump function
Bump / normal from themapping
simple, flat can,
- however,
-. reduce the more offensive artifacts
unit square patch o f aliasing. Figure 10 shows the result of such

- Fake the detailed geometry

an operation.

FigureFigure 8 Drawn
A- Hand Bump Funtions
Hand Drawn Functio

Relative height to the height -> normal -> shading

underlying
Before surface
:
After

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Figure 10 - Filtering Bump Texture
 Bump Mapping

Adding surface detail without adding more triangles

• Perturb surface normal per pixel
(for shading computations only)
• “Height shift” per texel defined by a texture
• How to modify normal vector?
n=?

Bump texture p
b(u,v)

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 How to perturb the normal (in flatland)

• Original surface normal n(p) = (0, 1)

• Derivative at p is dp = c * [h(p+1) - h(p)]
• Perturbed normal is then n(p) = (-dp, 1).normalized()

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 How to perturb the normal (in 3D)

• Original surface normal n(p) = (0, 0, 1)

• Derivatives at p are
- dp/du = c1 * [h(u+1) - h(u)]
- dp/dv = c2 * [h(v+1) - h(v)]
• Perturbed normal is n = (-dp/du, -dp/dv, 1).normalized()
• Note that this is in local coordinate!
More will be elaborated in FAQ of HW3

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 Textures can affect shading!
• Displacement mapping — a more advanced approach
- Uses the same texture as in bumping mapping

- Actually moves the vertices

Bump / Normal mapping Displacement mapping

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 3D Procedural Noise + Solid Modeling

Perlin noise, Ken Perlin

Ken Perlin

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 Provide Precomputed Shading

Autodesk
Simple Ambient occlusion With ambient
shading texture map occlusion

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 3D Textures and Volume Rendering

Marc Levoy
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 Today
• Shading 3
- Applications of textures

• Introduction to geometry
- Examples of geometry

- Various representations of geometry

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 Examples of Geometry

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 Examples of Geometry

NetCarShow.com

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 Examples of Geometry

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 Examples of Geometry

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 Examples of Geometry

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 Examples of Geometry

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 Examples of Geometry

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 Examples of Geometry

I will call it
“Trump Virus”
COVID-19 forever.
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 Examples of Geometry

Adriana Franco, National Geographic

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 Many Ways to Represent Geometry
Implicit
• algebraic surface
• level sets
• distance functions
• ...
Explicit
• point cloud
• polygon mesh
• subdivision, NURBS
• ...
Each choice best suited to a different task/type of geometry

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 “Implicit” Representations of Geometry

Based on classifying points

• Points satisfy some specified relationship
E.g. sphere: all points in 3D, where x2+y2+z2 = 1
f(x,y)
More generally, f(x,y,z) = 0 +1
f=0

-1
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Implicit Surface – Sampling Can Be Hard
p
2 2
f (x, y, z) = (2 x2 + 2
y ) +z 1

What points lie on f(x,y,z) = 0? y

z x

Some tasks are hard with implicit representations

Implicit Surface – Inside/Outside Tests Easy

2 2 2
f (x, y, z) = x + y + z 1
y
Is (3/4, 1/2, 1/4) inside?

Just plug it in:

f(x,y,z) = –1/8 < 0 ( 3/4, 1/2, 1/4 )

Yes, inside.

z x

Implicit representations make some tasks easy

“Explicit” Representations of Geometry

All points are given directly or via parameter mapping

Generally:
Explicit Surface – Sampling Is Easy

f (u, v) = ((2 + cos u) cos v, (2 + cos u) sin v, sin u)

What points lie on this surface? y

Just plug in (u,v) values!

z x

Explicit representations make some tasks easy

Explicit Surface – Inside/Outside Test Hard

f (u, v) = (cos u sin v, sin u sin v, cos v)

y
Is (3/4, 1/2, 1/4) inside?

( 3/4, 1/2, 1/4 )

z x

Some tasks are hard with explicit representations

No “Best” Representation – Geometry is Hard!

“I hate meshes.
I cannot believe how hard this is.
Geometry is hard.”

— David Baraff
Senior Research Scientist
Pixar Animation Studios

Slide cribbed from Keenan Crane, cribbed from Jeff Erickson.

Best Representation
Depends on the Task!
More Implicit Representations in
Computer Graphics
 Many Implicit Representations in Graphics

Algebraic surfaces
Constructive solid geometry
Level set methods
Fractals
...

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 Algebraic Surfaces (Implicit)

Surface is zero set of a polynomial in x, y, z

More complex shapes?

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 Constructive Solid Geometry (Implicit)

Combine implicit geometry via Boolean operations

Union
Intersection Difference

Boolean expressions:

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Distance Functions (Implicit)
Instead of Booleans, gradually blend surfaces together using
Distance functions:
giving minimum distance (could be signed distance)
from anywhere to object
Distance Functions (Implicit)
An Example: Blending (linear interp.) a moving boundary
 Blending Distance Functions (Implicit)

Can blend any two distance functions d1, d2:

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Scene of Pure Distance Functions

See https://iquilezles.org/www/articles/raymarchingdf/raymarchingdf.htm
 Level Set Methods (Also implicit)

Closed-form equations are hard to describe complex shapes

Alternative: store a grid of values approximating function
-.55 -.45 -.35 -.30 -.25

-.30 -.25 -.20 -.10 -.10

-.20 -.15 -.10 .10 .15

-.05 .10 .05 .25 .35

.15 .20 .25 .55 .60

Surface is found where interpolated values equal zero

Provides much more explicit control over shape (like a
texture)

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 Level Sets from Medical Data (CT, MRI, etc.)

Level sets encode, e.g., constant tissue density

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Level Sets in Physical Simulation

Level set encodes distance to air-liquid boundary

See http://physbam.stanford.edu
 Fractals (Implicit)

Exhibit self-similarity, detail at all scales

“Language” for describing natural phenomena
Hard to control shape!

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 Implicit Representations - Pros & Cons

Pros:
• compact description (e.g., a function)
• certain queries easy (inside object, distance to surface)
• good for ray-to-surface intersection (more later)
• for simple shapes, exact description / no sampling error
• easy to handle changes in topology (e.g., fluid)
Cons:
• difficult to model complex shapes

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 Thank you!
(And thank Prof. Ravi Ramamoorthi and Prof. Ren Ng for many of the slides!)