Graphics Pipeline & Visual Computing

chriscohnen@flybackintime:~$ cat graphics_pipeline.md

A look back at the fundamentals of pixel pipelines. Coming from Motorola 68000 home computers and assembler, going via Intel 386, these projects target Intel 486 and early Pentium processors -- an era when graphics cards had no 3D acceleration. Everything from triangle rasterization to texture mapping had to be implemented in software.

Case Studies
ID: S3DE | ERA: 1994-1996 | TECH: Watcom C, x86 ASM
Sanction 3D Engine
S3DE
Complete 3D rendering pipeline built without hardware acceleration. Software rasterizer with support for flat shading, Gouraud shading, texture mapping, and z-buffering.
explore
ID: Pure2 | ERA: 1997 | TECH: FPU Assembler, DOS
Pure2 Game Engine
Perspective-correct texture mapping at interactive frame rates. Features portal-based visibility culling, BSP subdivision, and a custom level format.
explore
ID: Pure3 | ERA: 1997-1998 | TECH: DirectX, C++ | IDE: MSVC
Pure3 Game Engine
Pure3
Full-featured 3D engine built on DirectX (originally featured an HSL/HSV-colormodel software renderer). Implements a professional rendering pipeline with Phong shading and a Descent-style portal-occlusion system. Designed for Pentium 133 / 16MB RAM machines. Developed as a foundation for commercial-grade 3D action titles.
explore cat history.txt Project: Pure3 Engine Status: Development ceased (1998) Context: High-performance engine developed by Pinker and Chris, later adopted as a technical foundation for ambitious 3D action titles. Features: - Segment-based portal occlusion (Descent-style) - Advanced DirectX pipeline (Phong, Materials) - Dynamic SFX (Lensflares, Particle Trails) - Custom level editor and MSV-Plugin support Note: The engine remains our original work and served as a baseline for future research.
ID: C2 | ERA: 2004-2005 | TECH: Java, LWJGL
C2 Engine
High-performance Java 3D engine prototype. Quake 3 BSP/MD3 loader, scripting console, and real-time collision detection.
explore
Algorithms & Simulations
ID: Metaballs-3D | ERA: 2001 | TECH: Borland Pascal, x86 ASM
Metaballs 3D
Metaballs
Real-time isosurface extraction using Marching Cubes. Phong shading with ray-traced lighting maps.
explore
ID: FHHLR-Terrain | TAG: WATCOM-C | ARCH: DOS
Saturn Landscape Renderer
Saturn
Terrain rendering using Floating Horizon Hidden Line Removal (FHHLR). Full 6DOF flight with screen shearing.
download_bin
ID: Dialogs-Logo | ERA: 1995/10 | TECH: Watcom C, Inline ASM | SYS: DOS
Dialogs 3D Engine Logo
Technical demonstration of a custom 3D software rendering engine (no hardware acceleration). Real-time rendering of a complex 3D logo using high-performance x86 assembler routines. Features early experiments in geometry transformation and rasterization.
download_bin cat info.txt exe: DIALOGS Logo Demonstration of my 3D Engine coding: COHNEN (Christian Cohnen) e-mail: cohnen@uni-koblenz.de date: 31.10.95 (c) Christian Cohnen
ID: W3DTL-07 | ERA: 1995-1996 | TECH: Win95, VfW | ARCH: x86
W3D TestLab 0.7
Early Windows 95 application of my 3D engine using the Video for Windows (VfW) interface. Supports 15-bit color mode (32k colors) and loaders for 3D Studio (.ASC), .NV, and .COB formats.
download_bin cat readme.txt W3DTOOL 0.7 (c) Christian Cohnen 1995, 1996 Eine kleine Win95 Anwendung meiner 3D-Engine. Die Engine läuft in 15-Bit Mode mit 32k Farben über die VfW-Schnittstelle, daher sollte ein VideoFürWindows-Treiber installiert sein. Die Save Optionen wurden deaktiviert. Der ASC-Lader wurde nicht vollständig aus meinem 3DTO3D Konverter (DOS) übernommen, daher kann man z.Z. nur mit einem Trick 3DStudio Dateien anschauen: Zuerst großes NV oder COB laden, dann das ASC laden und Zoomfaktor auf 1 oder 5 einstellen. Kontakt: Christian Cohnen Mozartstr. 2a 56075 Koblenz email: cohnen@uni-koblenz.de www: http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~cohnen
ID: Win3D-1.2 | ERA: 1995-1996 | TECH: Win95, C++ | IDE: MSVC
Win3D Viewer 1.2
A specialized viewer showcasing engine capabilities: morphing dolphin animations, chrome-style text effects, and multi-light source textured torus rendering.
download_bin cat readme.txt Kleine Demo von Win3D 1.2 (c) Christian Cohnen 1995, 1996 Ein abgespeckter Viewer mit ein paar einfachen Beispielszenen. 1. Morphender Delphin 2. Chrom-Schrift 3. Mit 3 Lichtquellen beleuchteter texturierter Torus Kontakt: Christian Cohnen Mozartstr. 2a 56075 Koblenz email: cohnen@uni-koblenz.de www: http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~cohnen
Research
TYPE: STUDIENARBEIT | DATE: 1996/11 | LANG: GERMAN
Perspektivisches Texture Mapping
Detailed comparison of algorithms: affine, quadratic subdivision, and exact per-pixel correction.
read_paper
TYPE: TUTORIAL | DATE: 2004/08 | TECH: OPENGL, JAVA
DDS Texture Loading
Tutorial and full source code for DDS (DirectDraw Surface) texture loading in Java using LWJGL/OpenGL.
code_archived