Introduction

Abstract

Figure 1.1 shows the basic construction of a 3D graphics computer. That is also the general organization of this book, with each block more or less representing a chapter (there is no chapter on memory, but memory is discussed in multiple chapters).

The book traces the earliest understanding of 3D and then the foundational mathematics to explain and construct 3D. From there we follow the history of the computer, beginning with mechanical computers, and ending up with tablets. Next, we present the amazing computer graphics (CG) algorithms and tricks, and it’s difficult to tell the story because there were a couple of periods where eruptions of new ideas and techniques seem to occur all at once. With the fundamentals of how to draw lines and create realistic images better understood, the applications that exploited those foundations. The applications of course can’t do the work by themselves and so the following chapter is on the 3D controllers that drive the display. The chapter that logically follows that is on the development of the displays, and a chapter follows that on stereovision.