The Different Types of Computer Graphics

1. Overview

In this tutorial, we’ll consider the computer graphic definition and its different types. We’ll also talk about which applications can be implemented in.

2. What Is Computer Graphics

Computer Graphics is a technology enabling visual content to be drawn, displayed, or manipulated on computer screens with the help of programming languages.

Mathematical algorithms for representing, transforming, and rendering visual elements like pixels are used by Computer Graphics techniques such as geometry and modeling, animation, image processing, and rendering.

Computer Graphics can mainly be divided into Interactive (active) and non-Interactive (passive) parts.

3. Interactive Computer Graphics

This technique encompasses interactive communication between users and visual content in real-time using different input devices. These devices include touchscreens, keyboards, mice, game controllers, and VR controllers.

Also, Interactive Computer Graphics allows the users to actively engage with the digital content they work with which may lead to better interactive visual experiences:

This figure shows that the interactive system is divided into two parts. The software part includes the application database, application program, and graphic library and the hardware part consists of the Graphic system and a computer. The application program maps all the application objects to images by involving the graphic library

3.1. The Principal Components of Interactive Computer Graphics

The following elements are the basic components of Interactive Computer Graphic:

• Input device: users are able to interact with graphics by inputting devices such as keyboards, mice, touchscreens, and game controllers
• Display device: a display device like a monitor or a screen is needed for presenting the graphics to users
• Graphic pipeline: a set of stages such as rasterization, geometric processing, output merging, and pixel shading, used for rendering graphical data
• Rendering engine: it creates the final output by performing the necessary operations to convert the objects’ descriptions into rasterized images
• Graphic User Interface (GPU): it helps users to interact with the system. Buttons, menus, sliders, and other UI elements are used to manipulate objects, control the graphics app, and change settings
• Interaction technique: it includes actions such as dragging, clicking, and rotating objects
• Application logic: the algorithms that control the behavior of the Interactive system by determining the way that objects interact together and the way the graphic systems react and behave in different situations

4. Non-Interactive Computer Graphics

In this method, the visual content has already been generated and the user cannot participate in real-time manipulation. The content is static as images or animations.

Some techniques like global illumination, ray tracing, high-resolution rendering, and shaders are applied for the main goal of non-interactive computer graphics which is producing high-quality visual content.

The pre-determined visual output is used in different industries, for instance entertainment, advertising, architecture, and so on.

5. Applications of Computer Graphics

Computer Graphics is applied in two categories of two-dimensional and three-dimensional space.

Digital art, typography, graphic design, and UI design are the applications of 2D. There are 3D applications in which Computer Graphics plays a vital role such as video games, architectural visualization, product design, and virtual reality.

6. Conclusion

In this article, we took a glance at Computer Graphics and its tasks. We also talked about the application in various industries that Computer Graphics come into play.