Interactive Terrain Rendering on Parallel Machines
by Patrick Angeles
Advisor: Paul Coddington
Project conducted as part of the 1994 Research Experiences for
Undergraduates (REU) Program in High-Performance Computing
conducted by the Northeast Parallel Architecture Center (NPAC)
at Syracuse University.
Abstract
An interactive, scalable terrain-rendering application is being
developed as part of The Living Textbook project. The
application uses texture-mapping, Gouraud shading and
z-buffering techniques to render terrain. Various
parallel rendering algorithms are also explored to help produce
high-quality images at interactive frame rates.
Introduction
Our immediate goal for this application is to achieve interactive,
real-time rendering of the terrain with a highly presentable image
quality. To minimize computation, we resort to object-based
rendering techniques. The approach followed by the application
takes flat polygons (triangles), transforms and clips each triangle
in the scene, and scan converts it into pixels. For hidden surface
removal, a z-buffer algorithm is used. To achieve a degree
of detail and realism, Gouraud shading and texture-mapping
techniques are employed.
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Patrick J. Angeles
Computer Science Department,
Oberlin College, Ohio.
e-mail: pangeles@cs.oberlin.edu