BSCS Bachelor of Science in Computer Science: Computer Graphics Fundamentals Questions 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which matrix operation converts a point from world space to camera (view) space?
- Projection matrix
- Model matrix
- View matrix (Correct answer)
- Viewport transform
Correct answer: View matrix
The view matrix repositions world-space coordinates relative to the camera's position and orientation.
Question 2: In the graphics pipeline, what is the role of the fragment shader?
- Transform vertices into clip space
- Compute the final color of each rasterized pixel (Correct answer)
- Assemble triangles from indexed vertices
- Cull back-facing polygons
Correct answer: Compute the final color of each rasterized pixel
The fragment shader runs once per rasterized fragment and outputs the final color (and optionally depth) for that pixel.
Question 3: What is Phong shading's key advantage over Gouraud shading?
- It requires fewer vertices to represent a surface
- It interpolates normals across the surface, producing more accurate specular highlights (Correct answer)
- It eliminates the need for a depth buffer
- It computes lighting only once per polygon
Correct answer: It interpolates normals across the surface, producing more accurate specular highlights
Phong shading interpolates surface normals across each polygon and evaluates lighting per-fragment, producing sharper, more realistic specular highlights.
Question 4: Which data structure efficiently tests ray-triangle intersections by partitioning scene geometry?
- Adjacency list
- Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH)
- K-d tree (for triangles)
- Both B and C are correct (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Both B and C are correct
Both BVH and k-d trees are spatial acceleration structures that partition scene geometry to reduce the number of ray-triangle intersection tests.
Question 5: What does 'gimbal lock' refer to in 3D rotation systems?
- Locking the camera to a fixed rotation speed
- Loss of one degree of freedom when two rotation axes align (Correct answer)
- A constraint preventing objects from rotating past 360°
- Camera clipping at the near plane
Correct answer: Loss of one degree of freedom when two rotation axes align
Gimbal lock occurs when two rotation axes of an Euler-angle system become coplanar, collapsing three degrees of freedom to two.
Question 6: In the context of procedural textures, what does a Perlin noise function output?
- Random integer seeds for texture atlases
- Smooth pseudo-random gradient noise for natural-looking surfaces (Correct answer)
- Fractal subdivisions of polygonal meshes
- Pre-computed irradiance values for GI
Correct answer: Smooth pseudo-random gradient noise for natural-looking surfaces
Perlin noise generates smooth, coherent pseudo-random gradient values used to create natural-looking textures like marble, wood, and terrain.
Question 7: What is the primary difference between orthographic and perspective projection?
- Orthographic supports more polygons per scene
- Perspective preserves parallel lines; orthographic does not
- Orthographic does not produce foreshortening; perspective does (Correct answer)
- Perspective uses a rectangular view volume; orthographic uses a frustum
Correct answer: Orthographic does not produce foreshortening; perspective does
Orthographic projection maps parallel lines to parallel lines with no foreshortening, while perspective projection makes distant objects appear smaller.
BSCS Bachelor of Science in Computer Science: Computer Graphics Fundamentals Questions 4
Which matrix operation converts a point from world space to camera (view) space?