An integrated environment for the modelling and rendering of synthetic objects

An integrated environment, GARC (graphical automatic ray casting), for defining and rendering B-spline approximated surfaces is presented. This environment has been implemented by the authors and used to generate the figures presented. This work, although making use of the results of M.A.J. Sweeny and R.H. Bartels (1986), presents both a new methodology for defining surfaces in computer graphics and a novel implementation technique of rendering. An interactive environment for the definition and for the modification of surfaces has been defined and implemented using the authors´ ideas. GARC has been explicitly designed to meet any user requirement in the most natural way possible. Therefore GARC represents a valid and user-friendly tool to design applications which require high-quality visualization of synthetic objects