Does computer graphics have a practic use besides games/movies/pictures ?

Question

Hello,

I am learning Computer Graphics at the university and I'm trying to figure out the use of it ... and I fail.

Only games and movies stick in to my mind, I'm sure there are other uses for, let's say, graphic algorithms, openGL, 2D and 3D, 3ds Max ...

Is it useful later on ? Where do I need it ?

Thank you

Answer 1

How about the 3d CAD software that engineers and architects use?

Answer 2

Medical and scientific visualization, simulations, preservation of cultural heritage come to mind.

Answer 3

When I attended the University of Florida (Go Gators!), I majored in Materials Science & Engineering. My initial goal was to learn plastics and polymers so I can be a biomedical engineer. I was going to double major in computer science so I could develop computer models and graphics to visually simulate complicated interactions and the like. Then I thought, why not develop cool graphics to enhance the teaching experience. But then I took and failed my first computer class (all about an abstract language to teach us object oriented programming) and I gave up that idea immediately.

Well, I'm back in programming (and I use OOP every day) but I don't do graphical modeling. I still think there's a big use for it in several fields for modeling the complex things we can't explain with hand waving and 2D blueprints.

Answer 4

First of all there is of course 3D:

• CAD (did you know that today all cars, planes, boats or actually anything is designed via a computer and a CAD software?)
• Scientific visualization, terrain visualization (think of google-earth), scientific simulations (any kinds of simulations actually, from fluids to sounds, or deformations, molecules, and so on...), medical visualization and assistance during surgery, etc...
• User interfaces (not only 3D on the screen but also new input devices need to be designed)
• ...

And of course 2D is part of Computer Graphics. Think of digital photography, image filter algorithms, real-time encoding and decoding of highly compressed video, digital cameras chips, etc... List is endless.

Answer 5

In addition to what the others have said think about simulators. Flights probably have to be simulated these days in order to avoid crashes. While it can be done without any representaton people will need to see the output in the form of some visual representation and thus you need graphics. Even this website has graphics on it. Depending on the browser it might not be hardware accelerated but it is a graphcs context.
Even console based applications provide you with text that is represented visually and that's because human eyes are the easiest way of offering output.