ABSTRACT
Z-buffer a method for solving the visible (or hidden) surface problem using two aligned pixel buffers or images. The first buffer stores the current color of the pixel and the second buffer stores the distance from the viewer to the surface. When rendering a point α on a scene surface, if the distance from the observer to a is greater than that of a previous point b that projects to the same image pixel, then point a can be ignored (as it cannot be seen). If the distance to a is less than the stored distance to b, then distance and color of a replace the color and distance buffer entry of b.
