Efficient Anti-Aliasing Algorithm for Computer Generated Images

Tsuyoshi Isshiki and Hiroaki Kunieda

Dept. Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Tokyo Institute of Technology
2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, JAPAN
isshiki@ss.titech.ac.jp, kunieda@ss.titech.ac.jp

Abstract detection and calculation of pixel blending ratio is sig-

nificantly simpler and more effective than that of the
Anti-aliasing is one of the most important process for previous post-filtering approaches. It is also well-tuned
generating high quality 3D graphics images. There have for efficient hardware implementation for real time com-
been many approaches for anti-aliasing but few consider puter graphics.
the real-time processing constraints which is critical for
various interactive graphics applications. In this paper,
we propose a very powerful but simple method for anti- 2 Pixel Connectivity
aliasing called double line scanning method which is suit-
able for low cost hardware implementation. We define the color intensity difference of two pixels Pa
and Pb as follows:

d(Pa,Pb)= lP," - IP," - PSI -k lp," - PFl (1)

1 Introduction
Although the computational power of current micropro-
cessors and 3D graphics hardwares enable fast graphics
image generation, there are strong demands for next gen-
eration graphics platform which supports high quality
real time graphics rendering. Anti-aliasing, especially,
is one of the crucial task for such high quality graph-
ics rendering which deals with the 'saggy edge" effect of
computer generated images. Several methods on anti-
aliasing are present t o date [l] [2] [3] [4]. A popular
supersampling approach generates the image at subpixel
resolution and averages the color intensity on each pixel
region. The drawback of this approach is the high com-
putational cost t o generate the image at subpixel resolu-
tion. Another approach is by post-filtering the generated
graphics image [3] [4]. It estimates the shape of the ob-
jects on the generated image, and calculates the pixel
blending ratio on the edge pixels. The advantage of this
approach is that the computational cost is significantly
less than other anti-aliasing approaches, and it can be
totally isolated from other graphics rendering tasks.
In this paper, we propose a new anti-aliasing method
called double-line scanning method. It is based on post-
filtering approach which detects object edges on two line
buffers, estimates the edge slope and calculates the pixel
blending ratio for the edge pixels. Our method of edge
where P,", P,", P," are the RGB values of pixel P,, re-
spectively. We say that the pixels Pa and Pb are con-
nected if d(P,,Pb) is below a predefined threshold T,
otherwise we say they are disconnected. Also, a con-
nected region is a group of orthogonally adjacent pixels
where the color intensity difference between any two ad-
jacent pixels is below the threshold T . A jaggy is thus
defined as the boundary of such connected region which
has staircase pattern.
From a 2D image, horizontal and vertical pixel con-
nectivities are first extracted and stored in two arrays of
Boolean value:
c h ( i , j ) = d(p,,J,P*,J-l)< T,
c v ( i , j ) = d(P,,J,p,-l,J)< T (2)
where P,,J is the pixel color value at ( i , j ) , c h ( i , j )is the
horizontal pixel connectivity, and cv(i,j ) is the vertical
pixel connectivity.
3 Jaggy Extraction Algorithm
Jaggies are extracted by two phases: jaggies whose slope
is between -45" and 45" angle are extracted by horizon-
tally scanning two adjacent rows of pixels, and jaggies
whose slope is between 45" and 135' angle are extracted
by vertically scanning two adjacent columns.

0-7803-5471-0/99/$10.0001999IEEE

IV-532
 j-1 j j-1 j j-1 j

i i i

i-1 i-1 i-1

if cv(i, j-1 j=1 if cv(i, j-1) = 1
andch I J) 1 and ch(i-1, j) = 1
and ch[;-; =0,E and ch(i, j) E 0 otherwise
openingti) :I UP openingti) :I DOWN openingu) := NULL
j-1 j j-1 j j-1 j

i i i Figure 3: Simple line fitting.

i-1 i-1 i-1
if cvfi. i) = 1
and c@-1, j) = 1
if cv(i. i) = 1
and cwi, j)) = 1
El
and ch(i, j) = 0 and ch(i-1, j) = 0 otherwise
closingti) := UP closingti) := DOWN closing(j) := NULL

Figure 1: Shapes of connected region on the scanning (a) Simple line fitting (b) Our smooth line fitting
points.
Figure 4: Comparison of simple line fitting and our
jaggy-head jaggy-tail smooth line fitting.

case, assign jaggy-tail := closing(j). And also:

if (jaggy-head = UP and jaggy-tail f DOWN
or jaggy-head # DOWN and jaggy-tail = UP)
jaggy-shape := "INC".
else if (jaggy-head = DOWN and jaggy-tail # UP
or jaggy-head # UP and jaggy-tail = DOWN)
jaggy-shape := "DEC".
0 If c v ( i , j ) = 1, there are no pending jaggy.
0 Else if c h ( i , j ) = 0 and c h ( i - 1 , j ) = 0, then a
new jaggy has started at j . In this case, assign
jaggy-head := opening(j).
0 Else another jaggy is pending.
The shape of the jaggy is then determined by jaggy-head
and jaggy-tail as shown in Fig.2.

else if (jaggy-head = UP and jaggy-tail = DOWN)

jaggy-shape := "MAX".
else jaggy-shape := "MIN"
Figure 2: Jaggy shape evaluation.
When scanning the two pixel rows i and i - 1 hori-
zontally from left to right, we first detect the starting
point of the jaggy, and then detect its termination. De-
tection of the starting point and termination point of a
jaggy as well as its shape are determined by the shapes of
the connected region at each scanning point j as shown
in Fig.1 (denoted as o p e n i n g ( j ) and c l o s i n g ( j ) ) . Here,
the conditions for detecting the start of jaggy and the
termination of jaggy are:
1. If jaggy is not pending, and o p e n i n g ( j ) # N U L L , then
jaggy starts at j . In this case, assign jaggy-head :=
opening(j).
2. If jaggy is pending, and c v ( i , j ) = 1 or (jaggy-head =
U P and c h ( i , j ) = 0) or (jaggy-head = D O W N and
c h ( i - 1,j)= 0), then jaggy has terminated at j. In this
4 Smooth Line Fitting Algorithm
After the jaggy has been extracted and its length and
shape evaluated, we need to calculate the jaggy slope
and the pixel blending ratio at each pixel on the jaggy.
Bloomenthal[3] and Overveld[4] use a simple line fit-
ting method which is illustrated in Fig.3. In the case
of Fig.3(a), the jaggy slope is determined solely by the
jaggy length (1 / j a g g y - l e n g t h ) , and the line is posi-
tioned so that it crosses the jaggy boundaries at half
way point which makes the fitted lines on the adjacent
jaggies to be continuous at the jaggy boundaries. In the
case of Fig.3(b), it is considered as horizontal edge and
thus a horizontal line is fitted. The problem of this sim-
ple line-fitting algorithm is that the slope of the fitted
line can only be the inverse of integers (1,1/2,1/3,. . .),
therefore the accuracy of the fitted line is quite limited.
Especially when the actual edge slope is close to 45",
jaggy cannot be effectively removed. Also, fitting a hor-
izontal line in the case of Fig.3(b) can cause unnatural
appearance since the original edge may actually be con-
tinuing from the left jaggy.
In order to deal with these problems, we use the length
information of three adjacent jaggies t o determine the

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 line slope of the middle jaggy. Let IO and 11 be the 5 Pixel Blending Ratio Calcula-
starting point and the termination point of a jaggy at
rows i and i - 1, and let L be the jaggy length ( L :=
t ion
21 - 20 + 1). If the jaggy shape is “INC”,then After the fitted lines are calculated, we need to com-
1. If there is an adjacent jaggy terminating at 20 - 1 whose pute the blending ratio of the pixels on the jaggy. When
shape is “INC” with a length of Lo, then the fitted line equation is given as in eq.(3), the blend-
ing ratio between the two vertically adjacent pixels on
1 (Lo > L ) +
rows i - 1 and a becomes b ( j ) := ( j - d0/3 1/2)/(L +
+
d o / 3 d1/3) where j = 0,1, ,L - 1 and 0 < b ( j ) < 1.
a . .

0 (Lo = L ) b ( j ) can be obtained by calculating the gradient db :=

+ +
1/(L d 0 / 3 d1/3) and b(O), and then simply accu-
else do := 0. +
mulate db: i.e. b ( j + 1) := b ( j ) db. Here, we have
2. If there is a adjacent jaggy starting at + 1 whose obtained that 6 bits for representing the blending factor
shape is “INC” with a length of L1, then is enough without any noticeable difference compared
with floating-point representation. Let n be the num-
1 (L1 > L ) ber of bits to represent the blending factor. Following
describes the blending ratio calculation which adopts in-
0 (L1 = L ) cremental linear interpolation algorithm [5].
Blending Calculation(L, do, d l ) :
else d l := 0. + +
W := 3L do dl.
3. Set the line equation as N := 3 . 2 ” .
q := LN/Wj.
r := N mod W .
a := 0.
+
c := q/2 do . 12”/Wj.
For j = 0 to L - 1
Similar calculation is done for the case when the jaggy b ( j ) := c .
shape is “DEC”.Important point here is that we modify c:=c+q.
the length of the jaggy by f 2 / 3 , f 1 / 3 or 0, depending a := a + r .
on the length of the adjacent jaggies. In this way, we If a 1 W, then
can increase the accuracy of the fitted line (line slope a :=a - W .
can now have the values 1,3/4,3/5,3/6,3/7,. . .), and c := c + 1.
further reduce the aliasing effect especially on edges near Here, q and T are the quotient and the remainder of N
. 4 5 O angle. +
divided by W . The term c := q / 2 do . L2”/W] calcu-
Next, if the shape is “ M A X ” , lates the initial value of the blending factor b ( 0 ) . Then
at each iteration, q and r are accumulated in c and a,
1. If there is a jaggy terminating at 20 - 1 with length LO, respectively, and when a becomes larger than W , c is
then let f o ( z ) := (z - 20 + 1/2)/Lo + i - 1. Otherwise incremented by 1. These operations avoid the exact di-
LO:= 0 and fo(z) := i - 1. vision of N / W by evaluating the accumulated remainder
2. If there is a jaggy terminating at 2 1 + 1 with length L1, a. Values LN/WJ,N mod W , and L2n/WJ can be pre-
then let f l ( z ) := -(z - 2 1 - 1/2)/L1 + i - 1. Otherwise computed and stored in a lookup table. When n = 6,
L1 := 0 and fl(z) := i - 1. +
only 3 . 26 2 = 194 entries are needed in the lookup
table.
3. If Lo > 1 or L1 > 1, then set the line equation as

6 Results
else
y =i - 1/2. Here, we show the results of our anti-aliasing method
on a 3D graphics image. The original image is shown in
Similar calculation is done for case when the jaggy shape Fig.5, where the image size is 400 x 400. In Fig.6, the re-
is “ M I N ” . Here we simply extend the fitted lines on the sult of anti-aliasing using our method is shown, where all
left and right of the jaggy to the middle jaggy region. the visible jaggies have effectively been smoothed with-
Fig.4 shows the comparison of simple line fitting and out causing any blurring of the details. Here, the blend-
our modified smooth line fitting. ing factor is represented using 6 bits.

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Figure 5: Original graphics image without anti-aliasing. Figure 6: Graphics image processed with our anti-
aliasing method.
7 Summary
ACM, ~01.20,pp.799-805, 1977.
In this paper, we have presented an efficient yet very ef-
fective method for anti-aliasing computer generated im- L. Carpenter, “The A-Buffer, an Anti-Aliased Hid-
ages. Its features are: den Surface Method”, ACM Proc. SIGGRAPH 18,
pp.103-108, 1984.
1. We first convert the pixel color information into
pixel connectivity matrix which are represented by a J. Bloomenthal, “Edge Inference with Applica-
single bit, therefore reduced the memory bandwidth tions to Anti-Aliasing” , ACM Proc. SIGGRAPH .I 7,
requirement considerably. pp.157-162, 1983.

2. Jaggy extraction is done merely by scanning the
two pixel rows horizontally and vertically with a se-
ries of simple logic operations which is well suited
for hardware implementation. Note that horizontal
scanning and vertical scanning can be done simul-
t aneously.
C. van Overveld, “Application of Morphological Fil-
ters to Tackle Discretisation Artefacts”, Visual Com-
puter, vo1.8, pp.217-232, 1992.
D. Field, “Incremental Linear Interpolation”, ACM
Trans. Graphics, vo1.4, pp.1-11, 1985.

3. We developed an effective line fitting algorithm

which smoot hes the jaggies more effectively than the
conventional line fitting method.
4. We developed an efficient pixel blending ratio calcu-
lation method by adopting incremental linear inter-
polation algorithm which does not require division
and therefore ideal for hardware implementation.

References
[l] F.C. Crow, “The Aliasing Problem in Computer-
Generated Shaded Images”, Communication of the

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