Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 10

Chapter 5

The Rendering Pipeline

The primary theme of this chapter is the rendering pipeline. Given a geometric description of a 3D scene with a positioned and oriented virtual camera, the rendering pipeline refers to the entire sequence of steps necessary to generate a 2D image based on what the virtual camera sees (Figure 5.1). Before we begin coverage of the rendering pipeline, we have two short stops: First, we discuss some elements of the 3D illusion (i.e., the illusion that we are looking into a 3D world through a flat 2D monitor screen); and second, we explain how colors will be represented and worked with mathematically and in Direct3D code.

Figure 5.1: The image on the left shows some objects set up in the 3D world with a camera positioned ...