Fundamentals of Computer Graphics

This edition of Fundamentals of Computer Graphics includes substantial rewrites of the chapters on textures and graphics hardware, as well as many corrections throughout. The figures are now in color throughout the book.

The organization of the book remains substantially similar to the third edition. In our thinking, Chapters 2 through 8 constitute the “core core,” taking the straight and narrow path through what is absolutely required for understanding how images get onto the screen using the complementary approaches of ray tracing and rasterization. Ray tracing is covered first, since it is the simplest way to generate images of 3D scenes, followed by the mathematical machinery required for the graphics pipeline, then the pipeline itself. After that, the “outer core” covers other topics that would commonly be included in an introductory class, such as sampling theory, texture mapping, spatial data structures, and splines. Starting with Chapter 15 is a number of contributed chapters, authored by contributors we have chosen both for their expertise and for their clear way of expressing ideas.