Computer Graphics

The objectives of this chapter are quite ambitious; you should refer to the references cited in each Section to get a deeper explanation of the topics presented. By the end of this chapter you will be familiar with the main building blocks of a 3D graphics interactive application and will be able to use this knowledge to build your own VR projects.

In particular, we will give a brief overview of the following topics:

• Mathematics: coordinate systems, vectors, and transformation matrices. These are used to represent, visualize, and animate 3D objects, characters, and the like.

• 3D modeling: 3D primitives and geometric representations. This is how we actually create objects with a particular 3D shape.

• Image rendering: illumination models, lighting, colors and textures. These are used to visualize 3D shapes in a realistic and believable way.

This knowledge will give you the foundation required to understand any 3D graphics system, be it a software API like OpenGL or DirectX, a modeling/ animation tool such as Maya, Blender 3D, or 3DS MAX, or a game engine like Torque or Unreal.