Low-cost hardware platform for developing realtime 3D graphics

Abstract

BRAD3D, a low-cost hardware platform for the development of a realtime 3D graphics software is presented. The BRAD3D configuration is derived from a generalization of 3D image synthesis. Three basic processes have been identified: the geometric process, dealing with the measurements of the scene; the topologic process, extracting visible information from the polygonal structure; and the scan-conversion process, producing pixel values on a frame buffer. BRAD3D is implemented as a three-stage pipeline and accommodates depth-list and scan-line hidden-surface-removal algorithms. Each stage of the pipeline can be implemented using different hardware solutions. A microprocessor-based solution is presented as a general prototyping approach. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.