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Back-Face Detection Explained

Back-face detection is used to determine if a surface of an object is facing away from the viewer and therefore invisible. It tests the orientation of each surface's normal vector - if it points towards the viewer, it is a front face; if it points away, it is a back face. Removing back faces can significantly improve processing efficiency by culling about half the object's surfaces before rendering. The test is simple - if the z-component of the normal vector is positive, it is a back face, and if negative, a front face.

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Sinduja Baskaran
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1K views9 pages

Back-Face Detection Explained

Back-face detection is used to determine if a surface of an object is facing away from the viewer and therefore invisible. It tests the orientation of each surface's normal vector - if it points towards the viewer, it is a front face; if it points away, it is a back face. Removing back faces can significantly improve processing efficiency by culling about half the object's surfaces before rendering. The test is simple - if the z-component of the normal vector is positive, it is a back face, and if negative, a front face.

Uploaded by

Sinduja Baskaran
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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BACK FACE DETECTION

back-face detection Determination of whether a face of


an object is facing backward and therefore invisible. The
usual test is whether the surface normal points into the
screen or not. Special attention is needed for faces on
the silhouette of the object

back-face detection Determination of whether a face of


an object is facing backward and therefore invisible.
• Back-Face Detection
• In a solid object, there are surfaces which are facing the
viewer (front faces) and there are surfaces
• which are opposite to the viewer (back faces).
• These back faces contribute to approximately half of the
total number of surfaces. Since we cannot
• see these surfaces anyway, to save processing time, we can
remove them before the clipping process
• with a simple test.
• Each surface has a normal vector. If this vector is pointing
in the direction of the center of projection,
• it is a front face and can be seen by the viewer. If it is
pointing away from the center of projection, it
• is a back face and cannot be seen by the viewer.
• The test is very simple, if the z component of the normal
vector is positive, then, it is a back face. If
• the z component of the vector is negative, it is a front face.
BACK FACE DETECTION
Two Main Approaches
• Visible surface detection algorithms are
broadly classified as:
– Object Space Methods: Compares objects and
parts of objects to each other within the scene
definition to determine which surfaces are visible
– Image Space Methods: Visibility is decided point-
by-point at each pixel position on the projection
plane
• Image space methods are by far the more
Back-Face Detection
• The simplest thing we can do is find the faces
on the backs of polyhedra and discard them
Back-Face Detection
• We know from before that a point (x, y, z) is
behind a polygon surface if:

• where A, B, C & D are the plane parameters


for the surface
• This can actually be made even easier if we
organise things to suit ourselves
Back-Face Detection
• Ensure we have a right handed system with the
viewing direction along the negative z-axis
• Now we can simply say that if the z component
of the polygon’s normal is less than zero the
surface cannot be seen
Back-Face Detection
• In general back-face detection can be
expected to eliminate about half of the
polygon surfaces in a scene from further
visibility tests
• More complicated surfaces
though scupper us!
• We need better techniques
to handle these kind of
situations
Back-Face Detection
• Visibility : Back-Face Detection
• Visibility : Back-Face Detection
• Fast and simple object-based system
• A point (x,y,z) is “inside” a polygon surface with
plane parameters A, B, C, D if :
• Ax + By + Cz + D < 0
• When an inside point is along the line of sight to
the surface, the polygon must be a back face and
so cannot be seen

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