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Rendering
Rendering refers to the final drawing stages where the 2D image that appears on
a display is derived from its 3D descriptions. What appears on the display may
look three dimensional, but it is really just a 2D grid of pixels designed to appear
that way.
Resolution
The resolution of any display is the number of pixels that can be depicted on
screen as specified by the number of horizontal rows against the number of
vertical columns. The default VGA resolution of many video cards is capable of
displaying 640 rows of pixels by 480 columns. The typical resolution of current
displays is set to higher values, such as 1024x768 (XGA), 1280x1024 (SXGA), or
1600x1200 (UXGA).
Saturation
Refers to the intensity of a specific hue (color). A highly saturated hue is vivid and
intense, whereas a less saturated hue appears more grey. A completely
unsaturated color is grey. In terms of the RGB color model, a fully saturated color
exists when you have 100% brightness in one of the three channels (say, red) and
0% in the two others (green and blue). Conversely, a fully desaturated color is one
where all of the color values are the same. Saturation can therefore be thought
of as the relative difference between the values of the channels.
Shadow Mask
In CRT monitors, the shadow mask is a metal plate full of tiny holes that is attached
to the inside of the glass screen. It focuses the beams from the electron guns at
the back of the CRT. The distance between these holes is called the dot pitch.
SmartShader™ HD
SmartShader HD contains advanced vertex and pixel-shading capabilities. A
shader is a small program that runs on the GPU and describes how an image
should be rendered. Vertex shaders manipulate the individual polygons that
make up 3D objects, and pixel shaders operate on the individual pixels that fill in
these polygons to create a visible image. SmartShader HD is designed to alleviate
the resource constraints of earlier shader hardware, paving the way for more
complex, detailed, and realistic shader effects in applications requiring high-
performance 3D rendering.
SmoothVision™ HD
SmoothVision HD incorporates improved anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and
3Dc™ compression features designed to further enhance image quality. Anti-
aliasing performance is improved, providing better overall detail and image
quality. The enhanced anisotropic filtering ensures sharper and clearer pictures
at higher frame rates, and the new 3Dc compression technology makes it possible
to display higher polygon counts for 3D rendered objects.
Specular Highlight
The bright, usually small, intense light reflected from a 3D surface with a high
refraction value. From the intensity and spread of this highlight users can
differentiate between a "hard," smooth surface, such as metal or porcelain, or a
"soft," textured surface, such as fabric or skin.
Texel
Short for "texture element," the 3D equivalent of a pixel, describing the base unit
of the surface of a 3D object, such as a sphere; for a 2D object, such as a circle, the
base unit is a pixel.
© 2008 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
ATI FireMV 2400/ATI FirePro 2450
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