3-DIMENSIONAL REPRESENTATION FOR FAST RENDERING OF COMPLEX SCENES.

Abstract

Hierarchical representations of 3-dimensional objects are both time and space efficient. They typically consist of trees whose branches represent bounding volumes and whose terminal nodes represent primitive object elements (usually polygons). A method is described whereby the object space is represented entirely by a hierarchical data structure consisting of bounding volumes, with no other form of representation. This homogeneity allows the visible surface rendering to be performed simply and efficiently.