Compositing 3D images with antialiasing and various shading effects

A method is proposed for compositing 3-D images produced by different programs, taking depth order into consideration. The method can add the following effects to composited images: antialiased images with scaling are displayed by a simple algorithm; the algorithm can add shading effects due to various types of light, such as area sources and skylight; and ray tracing can be performed in localized regions, producing realistic results without the computational expense of ray tracing the whole image. In addition to the above processes, such shading effects as fog and texture mapping can be processed with conventional methods. Thus, it becomes possible to display complex scenes with various shading effects, using relatively small computers. The multiscanning method used for antialiasing and a data structure for processing it are described. Examples are presented to demonstrate the capability of the system.<>