VolumeRendering

3D Graphics Concepts

QGL Introduction | | OpenGL Pipeline

Direct Mode:

The graphics hardware is told directly, which objects of a 3D scene to render, by sending commands down the so called computer graphics pipeline:

Direct APIs: OpenGL, DirectX, Mantle.


Retained Mode:

A hierarchical model of the scene is constructed first, the so called scene graph.

Then for each frame to be rendered the scene graph is traversed and translated into direct rendering commands the hardware understands:

Retained APIs: OpenSceneGraph, Inventor, NVIDIA SceniX, Steam.


QGL Introduction | | OpenGL Pipeline

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