PHIGS - Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System
Table of Contents
PHIGS, short for the Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System, is
basically a library of about 400 functions that allow the user to display and
interact with 2-D and 3-D graphics.
It is an international standard, being created by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO).
PHIGS hides hardware-dependent details from the user;
so, for example, it allows an application draw on a plotter the same
way it draws on a computer screen.
PHIGS provides a set of familiar graphics objects called primitives,
each with attributes that control its location, orientation, color, and
appearance. All the other details shall be omitted here - it's best that you
read books and references on PHIGS (below).
What PHIGS can't do
Just in case you have high hopes for PHIGS to perform wonderful graphics for
you, you should know that (at least for standard PHIGS):
- It does not do ray-tracing or radiosity
- It does not compute shadows
- It does not provide texture mapping
- Motion blur or realistic fog effects are tough to do with PHIGS
If you really only to do any of these, check out
rayshade.
Also, you might want to consider opengl - it is very similar to PHIGS,
except that it is more portable between different platforms.