Digital Differential Analyzer

Line Drawing Algorithms-

In computer graphics, popular algorithms used to generate lines are-

1. Digital Differential Analyzer (DDA) Line Drawing Algorithm

2. Bresenham Line Drawing Algorithm
3. Mid Point Line Drawing Algorithm

DDA Algorithm-

DDA Algorithm is the simplest line drawing algorithm.

Given the starting and ending coordinates of a line,

DDA Algorithm attempts to generate the points between the starting and ending coordinates.

Procedure-

Given-

 Starting coordinates = (X0, Y0)

 Ending coordinates = (Xn, Yn)

The points generation using DDA Algorithm involves the following steps-
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Step-01:

Calculate ΔX, ΔY and M from the given input.

These parameters are calculated as-

 ΔX = Xn – X0
 ΔY =Yn – Y0
 M = ΔY / ΔX

Step-02:

Find the number of steps or points in between the starting and ending coordinates.

if (absolute (ΔX) > absolute (ΔY))

Steps = absolute (ΔX);

else
Steps = absolute (ΔY);

Step-03:

Suppose the current point is (Xp, Yp) and the next point is (Xp+1, Yp+1).
Find the next point by following the below three cases-
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Step-04:

Keep repeating Step-03 until the end point is reached or the number of generated new points
(including the starting and ending points) equals to the steps count.

PRACTICE PROBLEMS BASED ON DDA ALGORITHM-

Problem-01:

Calculate the points between the starting point (5, 6) and ending point (8, 12).

Solution-

Given-
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 Starting coordinates = (X0, Y0) = (5, 6)
 Ending coordinates = (Xn, Yn) = (8, 12)

Step-01:

Calculate ΔX, ΔY and M from the given input.

 ΔX = Xn – X0 = 8 – 5 = 3
 ΔY =Yn – Y0 = 12 – 6 = 6
 M = ΔY / ΔX = 6 / 3 = 2

Step-02:

Calculate the number of steps.

As |ΔX| < |ΔY| = 3 < 6, so number of steps = ΔY = 6

Step-03:

As M > 1, so case-03 is satisfied.

Now, Step-03 is executed until Step-04 is satisfied.

Xp Yp Xp+1 Yp+1 Round off (Xp+1, Yp+1)

5 6 5.5 7 (6, 7)

6 8 (6, 8)

6.5 9 (7, 9)

7 10 (7, 10)

7.5 11 (8, 11)

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8 12 (8, 12)

Problem-02:

Calculate the points between the starting point (5, 6) and ending point (13, 10).

Solution-

Given-

 Starting coordinates = (X0, Y0) = (5, 6)

 Ending coordinates = (Xn, Yn) = (13, 10)

Step-01:

Calculate ΔX, ΔY and M from the given input.

 Digital Differential Analyzer
 ΔX = Xn – X0 = 13 – 5 = 8
 ΔY =Yn – Y0 = 10 – 6 = 4
 M = ΔY / ΔX = 4 / 8 = 0.50

Step-02:

Calculate the number of steps.

As |ΔX| > |ΔY| = 8 > 4, so number of steps = ΔX = 8

Step-03:

As M < 1, so case-01 is satisfied.

Now, Step-03 is executed until Step-04 is satisfied.

Xp Yp Xp+1 Yp+1 Round off (Xp+1, Yp+1)

5 6 6 6.5 (6, 7)

7 7 (7, 7)

8 7.5 (8, 8)

9 8 (9, 8)

10 8.5 (10, 9)

11 9 (11, 9)

12 9.5 (12, 10)

13 10 (13, 10)
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Problem-03:

Calculate the points between the starting point (1, 7) and ending point (11, 17).

Solution-

Given-

 Starting coordinates = (X0, Y0) = (1, 7)

 Ending coordinates = (Xn, Yn) = (11, 17)

Step-01:

Calculate ΔX, ΔY and M from the given input.

 ΔX = Xn – X0 = 11 – 1 = 10
 ΔY =Yn – Y0 = 17 – 7 = 10
 M = ΔY / ΔX = 10 / 10 = 1
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Step-02:
Calculate the number of steps.
As |ΔX| = |ΔY| = 10 = 10, so number of steps = ΔX = ΔY = 10

Step-03:

As M = 1, so case-02 is satisfied.

Now, Step-03 is executed until Step-04 is satisfied.

Xp Yp Xp+1 Yp+1 Round off (Xp+1, Yp+1)

1 7 2 8 (2, 8)

3 9 (3, 9)

4 10 (4, 10)

5 11 (5, 11)

6 12 (6, 12)

7 13 (7, 13)

8 14 (8, 14)

9 15 (9, 15)

10 16 (10, 16)

11 17 (11, 17)
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Advantages of DDA Algorithm-

The advantages of DDA Algorithm are-

 It is a simple algorithm.
 It is easy to implement.
 It avoids using the multiplication operation which is costly in terms of time complexity.

Disadvantages of DDA Algorithm-

The disadvantages of DDA Algorithm are-

 There is an extra overhead of using round off( ) function.

 Using round off( ) function increases time complexity of the algorithm.
 Resulted lines are not smooth because of round off( ) function.
 The points generated by this algorithm are not accurate.