3Dlabs Oxygen GMX, User Manual

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Terms and Definitions
16 3Dlabs Oxygen GMX User’s Guide
Terms and Definitions
AGP
Advanced Graphics Port.
Alpha Blending
This means to create transparent objects by allowing for the blending of pixels to
simulate the transparency characteristics of an object. With alpha information, an
object can be designed from being totally transparent to opaque.
Alpha Buffer
A portion of the frame buffer used to define the transparency value of a pixel in the
frame buffer. This data can be used to blend the frame buffer pixel with the pixel to
be drawn to create a composite pixel.
Anti-Aliasing
A technique employed to remove any jagged edges from an object to appear
smooth. This is accomplished by gradually modifying the hue and saturation of
pixels.
API
Application Programming Interface. The API translates the instructions from the
application program into device commands that are specific to the screen’s display
controller, the graphics board.
Atmospheric Effects
The effect derived from adding one or more layers around an object.
Bilinear Sampling
The process whereby texture mapping is done through filtering.
Bit Depth
Bit depth is another way of expressing the numbers of colors available. A color bit
depth of 8 is equivalent to 256 colors, a bit depth of 16 (15 bit of color plus a 1 bit
overlay) yields 32768 colors, and a bit depth of 32 (24 bit RGB plus 8 bit of
overlays) equals 16.7 million colors. The latter is often referred to as true color.
Clipping
Removal of elements or sections not contained within the active viewing area.
DAC
Digital to Analog Converter.