Grafiikkaputket

Grafiikkaputket, often translated as graphics pipelines, are fundamental concepts in computer graphics. They describe the stages a computer follows to render a 3D scene into a 2D image on a screen. This process involves transforming geometric data, manipulating its appearance, and finally determining which pixels are visible and what color they should be.

The pipeline typically begins with the application stage, where the program prepares the scene's geometry and other data. This data then enters the geometry processing stage, which involves transformations like translation, rotation, and scaling. Clipping is another crucial step here, where parts of the geometry outside the viewing frustrant are discarded.

Following geometry processing is the rasterization stage. This is where the transformed 3D objects are converted into 2D pixel fragments that can be drawn on the screen. This involves determining which pixels on the screen are covered by each geometric primitive, like triangles.

The final stages involve fragment processing and the framebuffer. Fragment processing applies textures, lighting, and other visual effects to the fragments generated during rasterization. The framebuffer then stores the final color values for each pixel. This output is what the user eventually sees on their display. Modern graphics processing units (GPUs) are highly optimized to execute these pipeline stages in parallel, enabling the real-time rendering of complex scenes.