<p>You have to bear in mind that there are two aspects:</p>
<ol>
<li>The hardware or API aspect</li>
<li>The idea of how a 3D object must be transformed to aceive to have a 3D world.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>The hardware or API aspect:</strong>.
Let's take a look at OpenGL (see Figure 1): As you can see, the pipeline is much more complex than the image you posted. Your image is a very rough idea of how the pipeline can be used.
Even this pipeline is simplified. The pipeline can be modified in many ways... For example, tessellation shaders are optional. You can use them if you want. And here comes the point: You can use the pipeline to do calculations that have nothing to do with graphics at all. You can use it to calculate particle swarms or whatever.</p>
<p><strong>The idea of how a 3D object has to be transformed to get a 3D world:</strong>
The way your professor is teaching you how to do 3D rendering using this pipeline seems to be correct. It would be better to first show you step by step how to transform the 3D mesh from model space to world space to view space to projection space to NDC. And also to tell you how clipping and culling works. How the depth buffer interacts with the pixels and how blending is applied to the final result. Then to teach you the whole pipeline.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that computer graphics is a large and complex area of computer science. I think it is important that it is taught in a way that makes it easy to start experimenting.</p>
<ul>
<li>Most OpenGL tutorials start with an overview. So you have an idea of the general concept.</li>
<li>Then they start with the &quot;Hello World&quot; computer graphic (a single triangle).</li>
<li>Then they have the maths part. There you can see how the transforms are done.</li>
<li>Then they show you how to use several triangles and a camera.</li>
<li>...</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/51DTsrvH.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/51DTsrvH.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>Figure 1: OpenGL 4.3 Pipeline copied from Khronos group</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-10-08T10:17:45.707Z
2024-10-08T10:17:45.707Z
Thomas
<p>I took up a Computer Graphics course at my uni 2 weeks ago and we are learning about the graphics pipeline with rasterization, a process of converting models to a rasterized image.</p>
<p>I noticed that my professor is teaching the pipeline in the following way:</p>
<p><strong>Model Transform</strong> -&gt; <strong>Viewing Transform</strong> -&gt; <strong>Back-face Culling</strong> -&gt; <strong>Clipping</strong> -&gt; <strong>Projection</strong> -&gt; <strong>Viewport Transform</strong> -&gt; <strong>Rendering: Filling,HSE, Lighting, Texturing</strong></p>
<p>but when I search for <strong>Graphics with Rasterization pipeline</strong> I see only images like this one:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/mSzxrLDs.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/mSzxrLDs.png" alt="[1]: https://i.sstatic.net/nmt2lPN8.png" /></a></p>
<p>Are these pipelines the same, just different naming?</p>
<p>Also my professor is teaching the pipeline with this order: <strong>Clipping-&gt;Back-face Culling-&gt;HSE-&gt; Transforms...</strong> I believe it would be easier to understand the whole process if we did it in order, so we are not getting confused what the input and output of each stage is. Is there a reason why he is teaching this way?</p>

<rendering>
Is my professor's way of teaching computer graphics good?
JimGav
# Is my professor's way of teaching computer graphics good?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-10-08)

I took up a Computer Graphics course at my uni 2 weeks ago and we are learning about the graphics pipeline with rasterization, a process of converting models to a rasterized image.

I noticed that my professor is teaching the pipeline in the following way:

**Model Transform** -> **Viewing Transform** -> **Back-face Culling** -> **Clipping** -> **Projection** -> **Viewport Transform** -> **Rendering: Filling,HSE, Lighting, Texturing**

but when I search for **Graphics with Rasterization pipeline** I see only images like this one:

[![[1]: https://i.sstatic.net/nmt2lPN8.png](https://i.sstatic.net/mSzxrLDs.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/mSzxrLDs.png)

Are these pipelines the same, just different naming?

Also my professor is teaching the pipeline with this order: **Clipping->Back-face Culling->HSE-> Transforms...** I believe it would be easier to understand the whole process if we did it in order, so we are not getting confused what the input and output of each stage is. Is there a reason why he is teaching this way?

**Tags:** rendering


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-10-08. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

You have to bear in mind that there are two aspects:

1. The hardware or API aspect
2. The idea of how a 3D object must be transformed to aceive to have a 3D world.

**The hardware or API aspect:**.
Let's take a look at OpenGL (see Figure 1): As you can see, the pipeline is much more complex than the image you posted. Your image is a very rough idea of how the pipeline can be used.
Even this pipeline is simplified. The pipeline can be modified in many ways... For example, tessellation shaders are optional. You can use them if you want. And here comes the point: You can use the pipeline to do calculations that have nothing to do with graphics at all. You can use it to calculate particle swarms or whatever.

**The idea of how a 3D object has to be transformed to get a 3D world:**
The way your professor is teaching you how to do 3D rendering using this pipeline seems to be correct. It would be better to first show you step by step how to transform the 3D mesh from model space to world space to view space to projection space to NDC. And also to tell you how clipping and culling works. How the depth buffer interacts with the pixels and how blending is applied to the final result. Then to teach you the whole pipeline.

Keep in mind that computer graphics is a large and complex area of computer science. I think it is important that it is taught in a way that makes it easy to start experimenting.

* Most OpenGL tutorials start with an overview. So you have an idea of the general concept.
* Then they start with the "Hello World" computer graphic (a single triangle).
* Then they have the maths part. There you can see how the transforms are done.
* Then they show you how to use several triangles and a camera.
* ...

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/51DTsrvH.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/51DTsrvH.png)

Figure 1: OpenGL 4.3 Pipeline copied from Khronos group


---

