Line Clipping in 2D: Overview, Techniques and Algorithms

Abstract

Clipping, as a fundamental process in computer graphics, displays only the part of a scene which is needed to be displayed and rejects all others. In two dimensions, the clipping process can be applied to a variety of geometric primitives such as points, lines, polygons or curves. A line-clipping algorithm processes each line in a scene through a series of tests and intersection calculations to determine whether the entire line or any part of it is to be saved. It also calculates the intersection position of a line with the window edges so its major goal is to minimize these calculations. This article surveys important techniques and algorithms for line-clipping in 2D but it also includes some of the latest research made by the authors. The survey criteria include evaluation of all line-clipping algorithms against a rectangular window, line clipping versus polygon clipping, and our line clipping against a convex polygon, as well as all line-clipping algorithms against a convex polygon algorithm.

A Brief Survey of Clipping and Intersection Algorithms with a List of References (including Triangle-Triangle Intersections)

“…Analysis and comparisons of some clipping algorithms were published recently in Krammer (1992), Skala and Huy (2000), Skala et al (1995), Nisha (2017aNisha ( , 2017b, Matthes and Drakopoulos (2022), Ray (2012b).…”

“…Another algorithm based on the S-Clip algorithm was described in Skala (2021c). An algorithm for a line segment clipping based on the line segment end-points evaluation with the O(N) complexity was described by Matthes and Drakopoulos (2022).…”