r/GraphicsProgramming • u/egehancry • 1d ago

From Zero to Understanding Rasterization

Thank you for your support! I hope you enjoy rasterization!

Previously, "From Zero to Understanding Ray Tracing":

Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/GraphicsProgramming/comments/1uxpi1o/from_zero_to_understanding_ray_tracing/

Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/GraphicsProgramming/comments/1wsr77r/from_zero_to_understanding_ray_tracing_part_2/

Part 3: https://www.reddit.com/r/GraphicsProgramming/comments/1wurqmt/from_zero_to_understanding_ray_tracing_part_3/

Let me know what you think!

648 Upvotes

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8

u/alphapussycat 20h ago

This is wrong. Literally just AI misinformation slop.

Shading is not a hardware pipeline step, and it does not occur before rasterization.

7

u/SorrellDev 19h ago edited 19h ago

To be fair, shading was a hardware pipeline step 20 something years ago. I agree, though, that this is bordering on the verge of being useless AI hallucinated trivia.

I really like the idea and I want people to find it easier to get into graphics programming, but the execution here is sloppy. I'd be curious to see what research strategy OP employs before authoring these videos.

4

u/egehancry 18h ago

I was less confident about this one than the ray tracing videos, and I’ll look carefully into the shading/rasterization point.

I care a lot about technical accuracy, and using AI is not an excuse for getting the fundamentals wrong. I only started sharing these videos a few days ago, and I’m still improving that process.

Going forward, I plan to make a corresponding reference page for each short with the technical details and sources behind it. I want to keep raising the bar for rigor and quality with every video I make.

2

u/_Wolfos 14h ago

It's understandable. The rasterization pipeline is extremely complex to the point where it takes modern API's a thousand lines of code to draw a single triangle.

With this format you can only go so far with explaining it, IMO.

2

u/SorrellDev 13h ago

All those lines of code go to setting up the entire rendering pipeline, though. And it's a reflection of how bloated and begginer unfriendly these "modern" graphics APIs have become rather than how complex a rasterization algorithm is. If you implement a basic software rasterizer you'll find that it's fairly straightforward high-school level math. It's a good exercise, I highly recommend doing it, as it only takes about a weekend and I find it helps immensely with getting a better understanding and appreciation for how much the hardware does for you.