3D Graphics for Consumer Applications: How Realistic Does it Have to Be?

The design of graphics Ie's for the consumer market has performance limi­ tations imposed by the need to maintain low cost, and must be driven by con­ sideration of the potential applications. The likely requirements for a consumer aimed real time 3D graphics system are stated in terms of performance and rendering techniques, and a research prototype of a 3D display processor is presented. The processor performs polygon drawing with smooth shading, Z buffer, and texture mapping into standard memory components. Limitations of the system and necessary image quality improvements are discussed.