Real-time hidden-line elimination for a rotating polyhedral scene using the aspect representation

In this paper we address the problem of the real-time display of line drawings of a polyhedral scene with hidden lines removed, as the scene rotates or the viewpoint moves. We use frame-to-frame coherency to formulate an algorithm for efficiently computing and displaying the rotation along a path of viewpoints. The algorithm precomputes the viewpoints at which the appearance changes and the changes in appearance that occur, using the aspect representation. It then displays the views in real time by updating the current view to get a new view. The on-line display phase is about as fast as displaying a rotating wire-frame model of the scene. Thus high-speed animation with hidden line removal can be achieved for scenes of moderate size and visual complexity on general-purpose workstations.