One would think that the title of Tomas Moller's and Eric Haines's book, Real-Time Rendering, would be a contradiction in terms. How can such a computationally intensive process as rendering computer graphics ever hope to be done on the fly, in the blink of an eye, without delay--in short, in real time?

The term rendering, as it applies to computer graphics, refers to the mathematically intensive process of creating a picture or sequence of frames based on geometry. The duration of this process is dependent on the complexity of the scene (a forest with many trees and thousands of leaves will take much longer to render than a scene consisting of a white box over a gray background) and the speed of the hardware doing the calculations.

When Pixar's Toy Story was first released, the computer animation community was all abuzz with how it was done, and someone at Pixar mentioned that over 100 SGI workstations were used for rendering the frames over the course of almost two years. Someone else extrapolated this data and figured out that the same movie could have been rendered on one contemporary PC over the course of about 80 years.

The authors deftly answer the question, not only asserting that it can be done, but since this book is a programmer's guide, they list snippets of programming algorithms that help outline how it can be done.

Because the software and hardware is constantly and rapidly evolving due to the insatiable need for more realistic and complex graphics, the book avoids getting too specific. To quote the authors, "The field is rapidly evolving, and so it is a moving target." This lack of specificity doesn't detract from the usefulness of the book, though. Instead, it works at a higher, more abstract level, describing approaches to rendering techniques using generic algorithms. It is up to the programmer to apply these methods to the specific program or system on which it is to be implemented.

Real-Time Rendering describes some very complex methods, and this book is not for the average computer graphics creator. However, if you are working in an industry that depends on real-time rendered animation--like the gaming, medical, or military fields--or you are building the next-generation real-time render engine, this book will offer insight and concepts you can use to build some impressive software. --Mike Caputo


From Book News, Inc.
Real-time rendering is concerned with making images rapidly on a computer. The authors discuss visual transforms, the definition of materials and lights, texturing, advanced lighting and shading, non-photorealistic rendering, image-based rendering, acceleration algorithms, pipeline optimization, polygonal techniques, curves and curved surfaces, intersection test methods, collision detection, and graphics hardware. Basic understanding of computer graphics, computer science, and programming is assumed.Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR


Book Description
Building on the success of Real-Time Rendering, this completely revised and updated second edition addresses new developments in rendering realistic three-dimensional images in a fraction of a second. It discusses the latest graphics hardware capabilities, while also presenting theoretical underpinnings and algorithms of lasting value. The book contains chapters as diverse as: Transforms Visual appearance Acceleration algorithms Advanced shading techniques (new chapter) Curved surfaces (new chapter) With topics including: Pixel shaders Subdivision surfaces Intersection algorithms Pipeline tuning


Book Info
Focusing on the graphics pipeline, the text discusses transforms, optimization, visual appearance, polygon manipulation, collision detection, and special effects. Includes a wide range of texture algorithms, intersection methods, and speed-up techniques. DLC: Computer graphics.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The second edition of "Real-Time Rendering" comes three years after the release of the first. In that time computer graphics hardware has evolved at a rapid rate: it is more than ten times faster (outstripping Moore's Law) and the functionality has increased significantly in a wide range of areas. Reflecting these changes, this second edition is almost 900 pages long, 75% larger than the 512 pages of the first edition.

All chapters have been updated, and new chapters added on spline and subdivision surfaces, advanced shading theory and techniques, and non-photorealistic and image-based rendering. As with the first edition, this new book is a blend of solid theory and practical advice, useful for students, professionals, and hobbyists alike.

SYNOPSIS

From Chapter 1: What follows is a brief overview of the chapters ahead.

Chapter 2: The Graphics Rendering Pipeline. This chapter deals with the heart of real-time rendering, the mechanism that takes a scene description and converts it into something we can see.

Chapter 3: Transforms. Transforms are the basic tools for manipulating the position, orientation, size, and shape of objects and the location and view of the camera.

Chapter 4: Visual appearance. This chapter covers the definition of materials and lights and their use in achieving a realistic surface appearance. Also covered are other appearance-related topics, such as providing higher image quality through antialiasing and gamma correction.

Chapter 5: Texturing. One of the most powerful hardware-accelerated tools for real-time rendering is the ability to display data such as images on surfaces. This chapter discusses the mechanics of this technique, called texturing, and presents a wide variety of methods for applying it.

Chapter 6: Advanced Lighting and Shading. This chapter discusses the theory and practice of correctly represented materials. One focus in on new hardware features such as vertex and pixel shaders. Global illumination algorithms such as ray tracing and radiosity and their relation to real-time rendering is discussed.

Chapter 7: Non-Photorealistic Rendering. Attempting to make a scene look realistic is only one way of rendering it. This chapter discusses other styles, such as cartoon shading.

Chapter 8: Image-Based Rendering. Polygons are not always the fastest or most realistic way to describe objects or phenomena such as lens flares or fire. In this chapter, alternate representations based on using images are discussed.

Chapter 9: Acceleration Algorithms. After you make it go, make it go fast. Various forms of culling and level of detail rendering are covered here.

Chapter 10: Pipeline Optimization. Once an application is running and uses efficient algorithms, it can be made even faster using various optimization techniques. Finding the bottleneck and deciding what to do about it are the topics covered here.

Chapter 11: Polygonal Techniques. Geometric data comes from a wide range of sources, and sometimes requires modification in order to be rendered rapidly and well. This chapter discusses polygonal data and ways to clean it up and simplify it. Also included are more compact representations, such as triangle strips, fans, and meshes.

Chapter 12: Curves and Curved Surfaces. Hardware ultimately deals in points, lines, and polygons for rendering geometry. More complex surfaces offer advantages such as being able to trade off between quality and rendering speed, more compact representation, and smooth surface generation.

Chapter 13: Intersection Test Methods. Intersection testing is important for rendering, user interaction, and collision detection. In-depth coverage is provided here for a wide range of the most efficient algorithms for common geometric intersection tests.

Chapter 14: Collision Detection. Finding out whether two objects touch each other is a key element of many real-time applications. This chapter presents some efficient algorithms in the rapidly evolving field.

Chapter 15: Graphics Hardware. While graphics-hardware-accelerated algorithms have been discussed in the previous chapters, this chapter focuses on components such as color depth, frame buffers, and basic architecture types. Case studies of a few representative graphics accelerators are provided.

Chapter 16: The Future. Take a guess (we do).

FROM THE CRITICS

Jack Woehr - Electronic Review of Computer Books

Regular readers of ERCB may recall my comments when reviewing Graphics Programming with JFC:

It's an editorial blemish not to have provided a minimal bibliography to steer novice readers from the paths of pop techdom towards the high road of computer science..."

Real-Time Rendering, by Tomas Moeller and Eric Haines, remedies that omission. If you're ready for the mathematics of 3D computer graphics, you're ready for Real-Time Rendering. The authors state their objective succinctly:

This book is about algorithms which create synthetic images fast enough that the viewer can interact with a virtual environment.

Real-Time Rendering is a real textbook. The text is medium-to-high scientific English. To read the book, you must possess some familiarity with matrix math, geometry, and trigonometry. Equations abound, as do citations.

The presentation is both professional and scholarly. Moeller and Haines weigh in with a great deal of practical experience and an equal proportion of theoretical familiarity. The treatment is never abstract. Specific graphics subsystems are named and differences between them noted in the discussion. Rendering, not mathematics, is the focus.

The headings of Real-Time Rendering's content-rich chapters are:

1. Introduction
2. The Graphics Rendering Pipeline
3. Transforms
4. Visual Appearance
5. Texturing
6. Special Effects
7. Speed-up Techniques
8. Pipeline Optimization
9. Polygonal Techniques
10. Intersection Test Methods
11. Collision Detection
12. Graphics Hardware
13. The Future
Appendix A. Some Linear Algebra
Appendix B. Trigonometry

Real-Time Rendering is about process, not production. Hardware involved in the graphics pipeline is presented at the conceptual level in Chapter 12, "Graphics Hardware" and most engagingly in 12.2.2 "Case Study: Neon." The metal itself is not mined. If it's blit rates and bus signals you crave, you want a book like AGP System Architecture.

Overall, the editing, design, layout, and printing of this hardbound volume are excellent. Care and attention have been lavished on equation presentation. In addition to copious meticulous geometric diagrams, there are a number of plates relevant to the discussion. One group of plates is color; the rest are gray scale. Several of the gray scales are, in my review copy, unfortunately printed a bit too dark for comfort, but this is a minor flaw compensated for chez nous by a nifty fluorescent ring work light with central magnifying lens.

I learned the basics of rendering by taking off my shoes and socks and counting toes, while working through early OS/2 Presentation Manager development kit documentation. It is gratifying that this sort of approach is not necessary for the modern computer-science student who has access to books like Real-Time Rendering and to some of the 392 reference works cited therein, bless the bibliography.

Booknews

Real-time rendering is concerned with making images rapidly on a computer. The authors discuss visual transforms, the definition of materials and lights, texturing, advanced lighting and shading, non-photorealistic rendering, image-based rendering, acceleration algorithms, pipeline optimization, polygonal techniques, curves and curved surfaces, intersection test methods, collision detection, and graphics hardware. Basic understanding of computer graphics, computer science, and programming is assumed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Booknews

Presents algorithms for use in three-dimensional computer-aided design, simulation, virtual reality worlds, and games. Focusing on the graphics pipeline, the book has chapters on transforms, optimization, visual appearance, polygon manipulation, collision detection, and special effects. Also included are texture algorithms, intersection methods, and speed-up techniques. The book concludes with a section on hardware, including case studies of various graphics systems. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

From the Author:

The field of computer graphics has become complex enough that a single book covering it all must, of necessity, be somewhat shallow. Introductory texts give a solid foundation, but ignore more complex topics. Application Programming Interface (API)-specific volumes describe the exact syntax needed to make a graphics library perform some operation, but at the expense of having to limit themselves to what the API could do and the author could fit into the book.