Computer graphics is the science of generating and displaying three-dimensional digital images. It involves rendering and texturing, lighting, and optics. The field is divided into two categories: 2D and 3D.
When a computer is equipped with a graphics card, information whizzes from the CPU to the graphics card to the monitor. This is not to say that the information is only being rendered on the screen, as the cards also have their own random access memory (RAM) which stores data on the image.
During the early 1980s, the computer graphics industry was expanding rapidly. A number of companies were developing new products, timesweb and several large companies were taking advantage of the new technology. Silicon Graphics, one of the early companies, was founded by James Clark.
Another major developer of computer graphics was newshunttimes Adobe Systems, which developed Adobe Photoshop. The company also created a prominent special effects program for the movie industry.
By the 1990s, computer-generated imagery was beginning to become popular in the entertainment world. Games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Quake, and Odyssey, among others, were incredibly popular. These games had a major impact on the public’s perception of CGI.
Some of the earliest computer graphics companies included Sperry Rand and TRW. Later, the University of Utah became the world’s primary research center for computer graphics. In addition, the Special Interest Group on Graphics was established by the Association for Computing Machinery in 1969.
Early displays were limited, and real-time graphics were only available on business-level hardware. However, in the 2000s, personal computers and console video games had a huge graphical leap forward.