ADMAS UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER
SCIENCE

COMPUTER GRAPHICS

By: Getaneh T.
E-Mail: fitse31@gmail.com
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 CHAPTER 3:
GEOMETRY AND DRAWING ALGORITHMS

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DRAWING DIFFERENT OBJECTS
 Geometric Representation of objects: is a representation
or creating of an objects in two dimensional space.
 Different techniques used to draw an object

1. Scan Converting Lines

2. Scan Converting Circles

3. Scan Converting Ellipse

4. Scan Converting Polygons

5. Scan Converting Texts

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…
The graphics.h header file

Will demonstrate in lab session….....

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SCAN CONVERTING LINES
Line Drawing
 First problem statement: Draw a line on a screen between two
points
Problem Statement
 Given two points P and Q in the XY plane, both with integer
coordinates, determine which pixels on a screen should be
drawn in order to best approximate a unit-width line segment
starting at P and ending at Q

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WHAT IS SCAN CONVERSION?
 Final step of rasterization (the process of taking geometric
shapes and converting them into an array of pixels stored in the
framebuffer to be displayed) – converting from “random scan”
specification to a raster scan where we specify which pixels are
drawn based on a stored array of primitives.
 Takes triangles (or higher-order primitives) and maps them to
pixels on screen

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SCAN-CONVERTING A LINE: FINDING THE NEXT
PIXEL
Special cases:
 Horizontal Line:
 Draw pixel P and increment x coordinate value by 1 to get next
pixel.
 Vertical Line:
 Draw pixel P and increment y coordinate value by 1 to get next
pixel.
 Diagonal Line:
 Draw pixel P and increment both x and y coordinate by 1 to get next
pixel.

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VERTICAL DISTANCE

 Why can we use vertical distance as a

measure of which point (pixel center)
is closer?
 … because vertical distance is
proportional to actual distance
 Similar triangles show that true
distances to line (in blue) are directly
proportional to vertical distances to
line (in black) for each point
 Therefore, point with smaller vertical
distance to line is closest to line

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STRATEGY 1 – INCREMENTAL
ALGORITHM

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STRATEGY 1 – INCREMENTAL ALGORITHM

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STRATEGY 2 – MIDPOINT LINE
ALGORITHM

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STRATEGY 2 – MIDPOINT LINE
ALGORITHM

NE pixel

Previous pixel Q
Midpoint M

E pixel

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STRATEGY 2- MIDPOINT LINE
ALGORITHM

NE pixel

E pixel

For line shown, algorithm chooses

NE as next pixel.
Now, need to find a way to
calculate on which side of line
midpoint lies

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GENERAL LINE EQUATION IN IMPLICIT
FORM

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DECISION VARIABLE

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INCREMENTING DECISION VARIABLE IF
E WAS CHOSEN:

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IF NE WAS CHOSEN:

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SUMMARY

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EXAMPLE CODE

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THE BRESENHAM LINE ALGORITHM
 The Bresenham algorithm is another incremental scan
conversion algorithm
 The big advantage of this algorithm is that it uses only
integer calculations
 Created by Jack Bresenham worked for 27 years at
IBM before entering academia.

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THE BIG IDEA
Move across the x axis in unit intervals and at each step choose
between two different y coordinates

For example, from

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(xk+1, yk+1)
position (2, 3) we
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have to choose
(xk, yk) between (3, 3) and
3 (3, 4)
(xk+1, yk)
2
We would like the
point that is closer to
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2 3 4 5
the original line
DERIVING THE BRESENHAM LINE
ALGORITHM
At sample position xk+1 the
yk+1
vertical separations from the dupper
mathematical line are labelled y
dlower
dupper and dlower yk

xk+1
The y coordinate on the mathematical line at
xk+1 is:
y  m( xk  1)  b 22
DERIVING THE BRESENHAM LINE
ALGORITHM (CONT…)
So, dupper and dlower are given as follows:

d lower  y  yk
 m( xk  1)  b  yk
and:
d upper  ( yk  1)  y
 yk  1  m( xk  1)  b
We can use these to make a simple decision about which pixel is
closer to the mathematical line

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DERIVING THE BRESENHAM LINE
ALGORITHM (CONT…)
This simple decision is based on the difference between the two pixel
positions:

d lower  d upper  2m( xk  1)  2 yk  2b  1

Let’s substitute m with ∆y/∆x where ∆x and
∆y are the differences between the end-points:

y
x(d lower  d upper )  x(2 ( xk  1)  2 yk  2b  1)
x
 2y  xk  2x  yk  2y  x(2b  1)
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 2y  xk  2x  yk  c
DERIVING THE BRESENHAM LINE
ALGORITHM (CONT…)

So, a decision parameter pk for the kth step along a line is

given by:
pk  x(d lower  d upper )
 2y  xk  2x  yk  c
The sign of the decision parameter pk is the same as that

of dlower – dupper

If pk is negative, then we choose the lower pixel,

otherwise we choose the upper pixel
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DERIVING THE BRESENHAM LINE
ALGORITHM (CONT…)

Remember coordinate changes occur along the x axis in

unit steps so we can do everything with integer calculations
At step k+1 the decision parameter is given as:

p  2y  x
Subtracting pkkfrom
1 k 1
this we get:
 2x  yk 1  c

pk 1  pk  2y ( xk 1  xk )  2x( yk 1  yk )
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DERIVING THE BRESENHAM LINE
ALGORITHM (CONT…)

But, xk+1 is the same as xk+1 so:

pk 1  pk  2y  2x( yk 1  yk )
where yk+1 - yk is either 0 or 1 depending on the sign of
pk
The first decision parameter p0 is evaluated at (x0, y0) is
given as:
p0  2y  x
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THE BRESENHAM LINE ALGORITHM
BRESENHAM’S LINE DRAWING ALGORITHM
(for |m| < 1.0)
1. Input the two line end-points, storing the left end-point
in (x0, y0)
2. Plot the point (x0, y0)
3. Calculate the constants Δx, Δy, 2Δy, and (2Δy - 2Δx)
and get the first value for the decision parameter as:
p0  2y  x
4. At each xk along the line, starting at k = 0, perform the
following test. If pk < 0, the next point to plot is
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(xk+1, yk) and:
pk 1  pk  2y
THE BRESENHAM LINE ALGORITHM
(CONT…)
Otherwise, the next point to plot is (xk+1, yk+1) and:
pk 1  pk  2y  2x
5. Repeat step 4 (Δx – 1) times
.

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BRESENHAM EXAMPLE
Let’s have a go at this
Let’s plot the line from (20, 10) to (30, 18)
First off calculate all of the constants:
Δx: 10
Δy: 8
2Δy: 16
2Δy - 2Δx: -4
Calculate the initial decision parameter p0:
p0 = 2Δy – Δx = 6
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 BRESENHAM EXAMPLE (CONT…)
18 k pk (xk+1,yk+1)

17 0

16 1

15 2
3
14
4
13
5
12
6
11
7
10 31
8
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 9
BRESENHAM EXERCISE
Go through the steps of the Bresenham line drawing
algorithm for a line going from (21,12) to (29,16)

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BRESENHAM LINE ALGORITHM
SUMMARY
The Bresenham line algorithm has the following
advantages:
 An fast incremental algorithm
 Uses only integer calculations

Comparing this to the DDA algorithm, DDA has the

following problems:
 Accumulation of round-off errors can make the pixelated line
drift away from what was intended
 The rounding operations and floating point arithmetic
involved are time consuming

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A SIMPLE CIRCLE DRAWING
ALGORITHM
The equation for a circle is:

x y r
2 2 2

where r is the radius of the circle

So, we can write a simple circle drawing algorithm by
solving the equation for y at unit x intervals using:

y   r 2  x2
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A SIMPLE CIRCLE DRAWING
ALGORITHM (CONT…)

y0  20 2  0 2  20

y1  20 2  12  20

y2  20 2  2 2  20

y19  20 2  19 2  6

y20  20 2  20 2  0
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A SIMPLE CIRCLE DRAWING
ALGORITHM (CONT…)
However, unsurprisingly this is not a brilliant solution!
Firstly, the resulting circle has large gaps where the slope
approaches the vertical
Secondly, the calculations are not very efficient
 The square (multiply) operations
 The square root operation – try really hard to avoid these!

We need a more efficient, more accurate solution

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EIGHT-WAY SYMMETRY
The first thing we can notice to make our circle drawing algorithm
more efficient is that circles centred at (0, 0) have eight-way
symmetry

(-x, y) (x, y)

(-y, x) (y, x)

(-y, -x) (y, -x)

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(-x, -y) (x, -y)
MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
Similarly to the case with lines, there is an incremental
algorithm for drawing circles – the mid-point circle
algorithm
In the mid-point circle algorithm we use eight-way
symmetry so only ever calculate the points for the top right
eighth of a circle, and then use symmetry to get the rest of
the points

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MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
(CONT…)
Assume that we have
just plotted point (xk, yk) (xk, yk) (xk+1, yk)

The next point is a

choice between (xk+1, yk)
(xk+1, yk-1)
and (xk+1, yk-1)
We would like to choose
the point that is nearest to
the actual circle
So how do we make this choice?
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MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
(CONT…)
Let’s see the equation of the circle slightly to give us:

f circ ( x, y )  x 2  y 2  r 2
The equation evaluates as follows:

 0, if ( x, y ) is inside the circle boundary


f circ ( x, y )  0, if ( x, y ) is on the circle boundary
 0, if ( x, y ) is outside the circle boundary

By evaluating this function at the midpoint between the
candidate pixels we can make our decision
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MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
(CONT…)
Assuming we have just plotted the pixel at (xk,yk) so we need to
choose between (xk+1,yk) and (xk+1,yk-1)
Our decision variable can be defined as:
pk  f circ ( xk  1, yk  1 )
2
2 1
 ( xk  1)  ( yk  )  r 2 2
2
If pk < 0 the midpoint is inside the circle and and the pixel at yk is
closer to the circle
Otherwise the midpoint is outside and yk-1 is closer
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MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
(CONT…)
To ensure things are as efficient as possible we can do all
of our calculations incrementally

 
First consider:
pk 1  f circ xk 1  1, yk 1  1
2

or:

 [( xk  1)  1]  yk 1  1
2
2  r
2
2

pk 1  pk  2( xk  1)  ( yk21  yk2 )  ( yk 1  yk )  1
where yk+1 is either yk or yk-1 depending on the sign of
pk 42
MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
(CONT…)
The first decision variable is given as:
p0  f circ (1, r  1 )
2
 1  (r  1 ) 2  r 2
2
 5 r
4
Then if pk < 0 then the next decision variable is given as:

pk 1  pk  2 xk 1  1
If pk > 0 then the decision variable is:

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pk 1  pk  2 xk 1  1  2 yk  1
THE MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
 Input radius r and circle centre (xc, yc), then set the
coordinates for the first point on the circumference of a
circle centred on the origin as:
( x0 , y0 )  (0, r )
 Calculate the initial value of the decision parameter as:

p0  5  r
4
 Starting with k = 0 at each position xk, perform the
following test. If pk < 0, the next point along the circle
centred on (0, 0) is (xk+1, yk) and:
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pk 1  pk  2 xk 1  1
THE MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
(CONT…)
Otherwise the next point along the circle is (xk+1, yk-1) and:

pk 1  pk  2 xk 1  1  2 yk 1
4. Determine symmetry points in the other seven octants
5. Move each calculated pixel position (x, y) onto the circular
path centred at (xc, yc) to plot the coordinate values:

6. Repeat steps 3xto5xuntil

 xcx >= yy  y  yc

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MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
EXAMPLE
To see the mid-point circle algorithm in action lets use it to
draw a circle centred at (0,0) with radius 10

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 MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
EXAMPLE (CONT…)
10 pk
k (xk+1,yk+1) 2xk+1 2yk+1
9
8 0
7 1
6
5 2
4 3
3
2 4
1 5
0
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6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
EXERCISE
Use the mid-point circle algorithm to draw the circle
centred at (0,0) with radius 15

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MID-POINT CIRCLE ALGORITHM
SUMMARY
The key insights in the mid-point circle algorithm are:
 Eight-way symmetry can hugely reduce the work in drawing
a circle
 Moving in unit steps along the x axis at each point along the
circle’s edge we need to choose between two possible y
coordinates

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