Chapter 12

Hidden Surface Removal

 3D Viewing Pipeline
Primitives
Object space
Modeling Transformation
World space
Viewing Transformation
Camera space

Hidden Surface Removal

Lighting & Shading

3D-Clipping

Projection
Normalized view space
Scan conversion, Hiding
Image space,
July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics Device coordinates 2
Image
 Contents

1. Introduction
2. Methods
 Introduction
Need for Hidden Surface Removal
• We must determine what is visible within a scene
from a chosen viewing position
• For 3D worlds this is known as visible surface
detection or hidden surface elimination

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 4

 Introduction
• Visible surface detection algorithms are broadly
classified as:
– Object Space Methods: Compares objects and parts of
objects to each other within the scene definition to
determine which surfaces are visible
– Image Space Methods: Visibility is decided point-by-
point at each pixel position on the projection plane

• Image space methods are by far the more common

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 Methods

1. Back face detection

2. Depth-buffer method
3. Scan-line method
4. Sub division method
5. BSP Tree method

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 Back-Face Detection
• The simplest thing we can do is find the faces on the
backs of polyhedra and discard them

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 Back-Face Detection
• Any point (x, y, z) is behind a polygon surface if:

Ax  By  Cz  D  0
where A, B, C & D are the plane parameters for the surface
• When an inside point is along the line of sight to the surface,
the polygon must be a back face.
• It is also called culling.
• This is an object space method.

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 Back-Face Detection
• We can simplify the test by considering a surface Normal N and
Viewing vector V
• A polygon is back face if V.N > 0

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 Back-Face Detection
• Ensure we have a right handed system with the viewing direction
along the negative z-axis  N.V = C.(– zv), thus we need to
consider only the sign of C.
• Now we can simply say that if the z component of the polygon’s
normal is less than zero (C<0) the surface cannot be seen.

If C = 0, our viewing
direction is grazing that
polygon.
Hence Back face means
C≤0

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 10

 Back-Face Detection
• In general back-face detection can be expected to eliminate about
half of the polygon surfaces in a scene from further visibility
tests

• More complicated surfaces

though scupper us!

• We need better techniques

to handle these kind of
situations.

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 11

 Methods

1. Back face detection

2. Depth-buffer method
3. Scan-line method
4. Sub division method
5. BSP Tree method

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 12

 Depth-Buffer Method
• Often called the z-buffer method
• It is a image space method to detect visible surfaces.
• Compares surface depth values throughout a scene for each
pixel position on the projection plane
• Usually applied to scenes only containing polygons
• As depth values can be computed easily, this tends to be very
fast

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 Depth-Buffer Method

Shorter the distance the visible is an object

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 14
 Depth-Buffer Algorithm
• The method can be implemented in normalized coordinates,
so that the value of Z ranges from 0 at back clipping plane to
Zmax (1 or the largest value you can store on your system )at
front clipping plane.

• The algorithm uses two buffer areas

– Depth Buffer: (Z-Buffer) to store depth value for each surface
– Refresh Bufer: (Frame Buffer) to store intensity value for each
pixel.

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 Depth-Buffer Algorithm
1. Initialise the depth buffer and frame buffer so that for all buffer positions
(x, y)
depthBuff(x, y) = 1.0
frameBuff(x, y) = bgColour
2. Process each polygon in a scene, one at a time
2.1 For each projected (x, y) pixel position of a polygon, calculate the depth
z (if not already known)
2.2 If z < depthBuff(x, y), compute the surface colour at that position and
set
depthBuff(x, y) = z
frameBuff(x, y) = surfColour(x, y)
After all surfaces are processed depthBuff and frameBuff will store correct
values

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 16

 Depth-Buffer Algorithm
Calculating Depth
top scan line

y scan line

y - 1 scan line

bottom scan line

x x’
July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 17
 Depth-Buffer Algorithm
Calculating Depth
• At any surface position the depth is calculated from the plane
equation as:
 Ax  By  D
z
C
• Horizontally: For any scan line adjacent x positions differ by
±1, as do adjacent y positions
 A( x  1)  By  D A
z'  z'  z 
C C

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 18

 Depth-Buffer Algorithm
• The depth-buffer algorithm proceeds by starting at the top
vertex of the polygon. Then we recursively calculate the x-
coordinate values down a left edge of the polygon
• Vertically: The x value for the beginning position on each
scan line with slope m can be calculated from the previous
one as follows:
1
x'  x 
m
• Depth values along the edge being considered are calculated
using A B
z'  z  m
C
July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 19
 Depth-Buffer Algorithm
• For Non Planar Surfaces Bilinear Interpolation of Depth
Values
P3
( y1  y s )
za  z1  ( z4  z1 )
( y1  y 4 )
( y1  y s )
zb  z1  ( z2  z1 )
( y1  y 2 )
P4 P2 ( xa  x p )
zp  za  ( zb  za )
ys za zp zb ( xa  x b )

P1

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 Depth-Buffer Algorithm
       
       
       
        Z-buffer
       
       
       
       

Screen

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 Depth-Buffer Algorithm
 
      
     
    
   
  
 




       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 22
 Depth-Buffer Algorithm


 
  
   
    
     

 

       
       
       
       
       
       
       
July 18, 2023      Computer
  Graphics 23
 Depth-Buffer Algorithm
• Non Trivial Example
– Rectangle: P1(10,5,10), P2(10,25,10), P3(25,25,10), P4(25,5,10)
– Triangle: P5(15,15,15), P6(25,25,5), P7(30,10,5)
– Frame Buffer: Background 0, Rectangle 1, Triangle 2
– Z-buffer: 32x32x4 bit planes

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 24

 Depth-Buffer Algorithm
• Advantages
– Simple!!!
– Easy to implement in hardware
– Polygons can be processed in arbitrary order
– Easily handles polygon interpenetration
– Enables deferred shading
• Rasterize shading parameters (e.g., surface normal) and only shade
final visible fragments

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 25

 Depth-Buffer Algorithm
• Disadvantages
– Lots of memory (e.g. 1280x1024x32 bits)
• With 16 bits cannot discern millimeter differences in objects at 1 km
distance
– Read-Modify-Write in inner loop requires fast memory
– Hard to do analytic antialiasing
• We don’t know which polygon to map pixel back to
– Shared edges are handled inconsistently
• Ordering dependent
– Hard to simulate translucent polygons
• We throw away color of polygons behind closest one
July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 26
 Methods

1. Back face detection

2. Depth-buffer method
3. Scan-line method
4. Sub division method
5. BSP Tree method

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 27

 Scan-Line Method
• An image space method for identifying visible surfaces.
• An extension of scan line polygon fill method
– Handle multiple surfaces simultaneously
– Maintain information about depth value
• Computes and compares depth values along the various scan-
lines for a scene
• The algorithm exploits
– Scan-line coherency across multiple scan-lines
– Or span-coherence !
– Depth coherency
• Also Known as Spanning Scan Line Algorithm
July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 28
 Scan-Line Method
• Use no z-buffer
• Each scan line is subdivided into
several "spans"
• Determine which polygon the
current span belongs to
• Shade the span using the current
polygon’s color
• Exploit "span coherence" :
• For each span, only one
visibility test needs to be done

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 Scan-Line Method
• A scan line is subdivided into a sequence of spans
• Each span can be "inside" or "outside" polygon areas
– "outside“: no pixels need to be drawn (background color)
– "inside“: can be inside one or multiple polygons
• If a span is inside one polygon, the pixels in the span will be
drawn with the color of that polygon
• If a span is inside more than one polygon, then we need to
compare the z values of those polygons at the scan line edge
intersection point to determine the color of the pixel

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 Scan-Line Method

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 31

 Scan-Line Method
• Determining a span is inside/outside (Single Polygon)
– When a scan line intersects an edge of a polygon
• for a 1st time, the span becomes "inside" of the polygon
from that intersection point on
• for a 2nd time, the span becomes "outside“ of the
polygon from that point on
– Use a "in/out" flag for each polygon to keep track of the
current state
– Initially, the in/out flag is set to be "outside" (value = 0 for
example). Invert the tag for “inside”.

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 Scan-Line Method
• When there are multiple Polygons
– Each polygon will have its own in/out flag
– There can be more than one polygon having the in/out flags
to be "in" at a given instance
– We want to keep track of how many polygons the scan line
is currently in
– If there are more than one polygon "in", we need to
perform z value comparison to determine the color of the
scan line span

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 Scan-Line Method
• Z- Value Comparison
– When the scan line is intersecting
an edge and leaving a new
polygon, we then use the color of
the reminding polygon if there is
now only 1 polygon "in". If there
are still more than one polygon
with "in" flag, we need to
perform z comparison only when
the scan line is leaving a non-
obscured polygon

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 34

 Scan-Line Method
• Procedure
– Pixel positions across each scan-line are processed from
left to right
– At the left intersection with a surface the surface flag is
turned on
– At the right intersection point the flag is turned off
– We only need to perform depth calculations when more
than one surface has its flag turned on at a certain scan-line
position

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 Scan-Line Method

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 36

 Scan-Line Method
• Data structures maintained are:
– The Edge Table
– The Polygon Table
– Active Edge List
– Active Polygon List

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 Scan-Line Method
• The Edge Table contains:
– Coordinate end points of reach line in the scene
– The inverse slope of each line
– Pointers into the Polygon table to connect edges to surfaces

It is the same edge table that you have constructed in scan line
polygon fill algorithm.

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 38

 Scan-Line Method
• The Polygon Tables contains:
– The plane coefficients
– Surface data
• Colour
• Surface material properties
• Maybe pointers into the edge table
– In/Out Flag to indicate whether a position along a scan-line is either
inside or outside the surface

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 39

 Scan-Line Method
• The Active Edge List
– To facilitate the search for surfaces crossing a given scan-line an active
list of edges is formed for each scan-line as it is processed
– The active list stores only those edges that cross the scan-line in order
of increasing x

• The Active Polygon List

– At each x scan value this list contain
• All polygons whose in/out flag is set.
• The number of polygons in the list

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 40

 Scan-Line Method
• The Algorithm
I. Initialization phase
II. Y-scan loop
III. X-scan loop

I. Initialization
a. Initialize the AEL to empty
b. Initialize each screen pixel to background color
c. Set y = first non empty cell value in the edge list.
Repeat step I and II until no further processing can be
performed on AEL

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 41

 Scan-Line Method
II. Y-Scan Loop: Update the AEL by merging into it the
information contained in the cell Y of the edge list.
if AEL is null then exit
Else Sort the AEL in the order of increasing x

III. X-Scan Loop: Process from Left → Right, each edge of AEL, as
follows
a. Invert IN/OUT flag of polygons in polygon list which contain the
edge.
b. Update APL to contain only those polygons whose IN/OUT flag is
set to IN.

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 Scan-Line Method
c. Count the number of polygons in APL
c.1 If number = 0 then show background colour
c.2 If number = 1 then show the polygon colour from this edge to next
edge.
c.3 If number > 1 then determine the visibility of polygon by using depth
calculations
d. When the last active edge is processed update AEL as follows
d.1 Remove those edges for which Ymax has reached.
d.2 For each reaming edge x = x + 1/m
d.3 Increment to next scan line y =y + 1

Go to step II

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 43

 Scan-Line Method
• Limitations:
– The scan-line method runs into trouble when surfaces cut
through each other or otherwise cyclically overlap
– Such surfaces need to be divided

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 44

 Methods

1. Back face detection

2. Depth-buffer method
3. Scan-line method
4. Sub division method
5. BSP Tree method

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 45

 Area Subdivision
• Divide and conquer: the relationship of a display
area and a polygon after projection is one of the
four basic cases:

surround intersect contained disjoint

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 46

 Area Subdivision
• Starting from the entire display area, we check the following four cases. If
none holds, we subdivide the area, otherwise, we stop and perform the
action associated with the case
1. If all polygons are disjoint w.r.t. the area then draw the background
color
2. If only 1 intersecting or contained polygon then draw background,
and then draw the contained portion of the polygon
3. If there is a single surrounding polygon then draw the entire area in
the polygon’s color
4. If there are more than one intersecting, contained, or surrounding
polygons, but there is a front surrounding polygon then draw the entire
area in the polygon’s color
• The recursion stops when you are at the pixel level.

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 47

 Area Subdivision
• At single pixel level when the recursion stop and
none of the four cases hold, we need to perform depth
sort and draw the polygon (point) with the closest Z
value

• The algorithm is done at the object space level,

except scan conversion and clipping are done at the
image space level

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 48

 Area Subdivision
• Example

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 49

 Area Subdivision
• Example
0 1 0 0

1 M M 1

1
1 M M

0 0 0 0

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 50

 Area Subdivision
• Example

1 1 0 0

1 M M 1

1 M M M

0 1 1 1

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 51

 Area Subdivision
• Example

M M M 1
M M M M
M M M M 1 1
M M M M M 0

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 Area Subdivision
• Example

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 53

 Methods

1. Back face detection

2. Depth-buffer method
3. Scan-line method
4. Sub division method
5. BSP Tree method

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 54

 BSP Tree Method
Binary Space Partition is a relatively easy way to sort the polygons
relative to the eye point

To Build a BSP Tree

1. Choose a polygon, T, and compute the equation of the plane it defines.
2. Test all the vertices of all the other polygons to determine if they are in
front of, behind, or in the same plane as T. If the plane intersects a
polygon, divide the polygon at the plane.
3. Polygons are placed into a binary search tree with T as the root.
4. Call the procedure recursively on the left and right sub tree.

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 BSP Tree Method
+Z
F D

A
E

+X -X

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 56

 BSP Tree Method
To Traverse a BSP Tree
• Traverse the BSP tree such that the branch descended first is
the side that is away from the eye point. This can be
determined by substituting the eye point into the plane
equation for the polygon at the root.
• When there is no first branch to descend, or that branch has
been completed then render the polygon at this node.
• After the current node's polygon has been rendered, descend
the branch that is closer to the eyepoint.

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 57

 BSP Tree Method EYE 1
A
F2
+Z B C
D
E1 F1 D
F1 C
E2 F2
E2
A

E1
B

+X -X

EYE 2

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 58

 BSP Tree Method
Splitting Triangles
• If all our polygons are triangles
then we always divide a triangle
into more triangles when it is
intersected by the plane.
• It is possible for the number of triangles to increase
exponentially but in practice it is found that the increase may
be as small as two fold.
• A heuristic to help minimize the number of fractures is to enter
the triangles into the tree in order from largest to smallest.

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 59

 BSP Tree Method
• Pros:
– Simple, elegant scheme
– Only writes to framebuffer (no reads to see if current
polygon is in front of previously rendered polygon, i.e.,
painters algorithm)
• Thus very popular for video games (but getting less so)
• Cons:
– Computationally intense preprocess stage restricts
algorithm to static scenes
– Slow time to construct tree
– Splitting increases polygon count
July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 60
 BSP Trees: Objects

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 61

 BSP Trees: Objects

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 62

 BSP Trees: Objects

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 63

 BSP Trees: Objects

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 BSP Trees: Objects

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 65

 BSP Tree Method (Example)
• Split along the plane defined by any polygon from
scene
• Classify all polygons into positive or negative half-
space of the plane
– If a polygon intersects plane, split polygon into two and
classify them both
• Recurse down the negative half-space
• Recurse down the positive half-space

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 66

 BSP Tree Method (Example)
• No bunnies were harmed in my example
• But what if a splitting plane passes through an
object?
– Split the object; give half to each node

Ouch

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 67

 BSP Tree Method (Example)
• Nice demo:
http://symbolcraft.com/graphics/bsp

July 18, 2023 Computer Graphics 68

Any Question !