A More Flexible Three-Dimensional Computer Graphics System

Abstract

One principle advantage of a well-developed three-dimensional graphics system is the freedom it gives the user. If, for example, he has designed an object that he wishes to observe, a graphics system can make this possible, without the necessity of complex drawings or a physical model. Further the user should be able to manipulate his object and to put it through simulated physical transformations. This project has produced such a system: a set of FORTRAN sub-routines currently being run on the PDP-10 at the University of Utah from a remote PDP-9/UNIVAC 1559 system at Montana State University. Within what is hoped to be a minimum of restrictions, a user can specify a set of three-dimensional data and, with one call to a subroutine, display a perspective view of his data, viewed from any angle and any distance. One restriction on the data is that it must consist of linear elements, that is it must only contain straight lines.