Are Points the Better Graphics Primitives?
(Eurographics Association, 2001) Gross, Markus
Since the early days of graphics the computer based representation of three-dimensional geometry has been one of the core research fields. Today, various sophisticated geometric modelling techniques including NURBS or implicit surfaces allow the creation of 3D graphics models with increasingly complex shape. In spite of these methods the triangle has survived over decades as the king of graphics primitives meeting the right balance between descriptive power and computational burden. As a consequence, today's consumer graphics hardware is heavily tailored for high performance triangle processing. In addition, a new generation of geometry processing methods including hierarchical representations, geometric filtering, or feature detection fosters the concept of triangle meshes for graphics modelling. Unlike triangles, points have amazingly been neglected as a graphics primitive. Although being included in APIs since many years, it is only recently that point samples experience a renaissance in computer graphics. Conceptually, points provide a mere discretization of geometry without explicit storage of topology. Thus, point samples reduce the representation to the essentials needed for rendering and enable us to generate highly optimized object representations. Although the loss of topology poses great challenges for graphics processing, the latest generation of algorithms features high performance rendering, point/pixel shading, anisotropic texture mapping, and advanced signal processing of point sampled geometry. This talk will give an overview of how recent research results in the processing of triangles and points are changing our traditional way of thinking of surface representations in computer graphics - and will discuss the question: Are Points the Better Graphics Primitives?
Why Games Will Be the Preeminent Art Form of the 21st Century
(Eurographics Association, 2001) Hecker, Chris
Computer games share many artistic and technical characteristics with films of the early 1900s. Games' artistic evolution is hampered by the lack of artistic respect from society at large, and the lack of technical standards that would allow artistic innovation. The same problems affected cinema during its birth. During the early 20th century, film managed to find its way from popular diversion to highly respected art form. Will games follow the same course, or will they be stuck forever in the ghetto of pop culture? What technological and artistic changes need to occur in the medium for games to evolve beyond merely shooting aliens and into an art form worthy of association with painting, music, writing, and film? This talk will pose some of those questions, if not attempt to answer them.
Rendering: Input and Output
(Eurographics Association, 2001) Rushmeier, Holly
Rendering is the process of creating an image from numerical input data. In the past few years our ideas about methods for acquiring the input data and the form of the output have expanded. The availability of inexpensive cameras and scanners has influenced how we can obtain data needed for rendering. Input for rendering ranges from sets of images to complex geometric descriptions with detailed BRDF data. The images that are rendered may be simply arrays of RGB images, or they may be arrays with vectors or matrices of data defined for each pixel. The rendered images may not be intended for direct display, but may be textures for geometries that are to be transmitted to be rendered on another system. A broader range of parameters now need to be taken into account to render images that are perceptually consistent across displays that range from CAVEs to personal digital assistants. This presentation will give an overview of how new hardware and new applications have changed traditional ideas of rendering input and output.

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