Depth-Buffering Display Techniques for Constructive Solid Geometry

Solid modelers based on constructive solid geometry (CSG) typically generate shaded displays directly from CSG by using ray-casting techniques, which do not require informatin on the faces, edges, and vertices that bound a solid. This article describes an alternative-a simple new algorithm based on a depth-buffering or z-buffering approach. The z-buffer display algorithm operates directly on CSG, does not require explicit boundary data, and is easier to implement than ray casting. Ray-casting and z-beffering algorithms have comparable performances, but z-buffering is often faster for objects with complex surfaces, because it avoids expensive curve/surface intersection calculations. Because of their simplicity, depth-buffering algorithms for CSG are well-suited to hardware implementations, and may lead to machines simpler than those now being built for ray casting.