Enhanced Graphics for Extended Scale Range

Hanson, Andrew J.; Chi-Wing Fu, Philip

Enhanced Graphics for Extended Scale Range is a computer program for rendering fly-through views of scene models that include visible objects differing in size by large orders of magnitude. An example would be a scene showing a person in a park at night with the moon, stars, and galaxies in the background sky. Prior graphical computer programs exhibit arithmetic and other anomalies when rendering scenes containing objects that differ enormously in scale and distance from the viewer. The present program dynamically repartitions distance scales of objects in a scene during rendering to eliminate almost all such anomalies in a way compatible with implementation in other software and in hardware accelerators. By assigning depth ranges correspond ing to rendering precision requirements, either automatically or under program control, this program spaces out object scales to match the precision requirements of the rendering arithmetic. This action includes an intelligent partition of the depth buffer ranges to avoid known anomalies from this source. The program is written in C++, using OpenGL, GLUT, and GLUI standard libraries, and nVidia GEForce Vertex Shader extensions. The program has been shown to work on several computers running UNIX and Windows operating systems.

Document ID

20120006578

Acquisition Source

Goddard Space Flight Center

Document Type

Other - NASA Tech Brief

External Source(s)

http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/12632

Authors

Date Acquired

August 25, 2013

Publication Date

January 1, 2012

Publication Information

Publication: NASA Tech Briefs, January 2012

Subject Category

Report/Patent Number

Distribution Limits

Public

Public Use Permitted.

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20120006578.pdf

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