What are the key components of a graphics pipeline?

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What are the key components of a graphics pipeline?

The key components of a graphics pipeline are as follows:

1. Geometry Processing: This stage involves transforming and manipulating the geometric data of objects in the scene. It includes operations like vertex transformations, projection, clipping, and culling.

2. Rasterization: In this stage, the geometric primitives (such as points, lines, and polygons) are converted into pixels. Rasterization determines which pixels are covered by the primitives and generates fragments for further processing.

3. Fragment Processing: Fragments are the individual pixels generated during rasterization. Fragment processing involves operations like shading, texturing, and applying lighting models to determine the final color and appearance of each pixel.

4. Per-fragment Operations: This stage includes operations like depth testing, stencil testing, and alpha blending. Depth testing ensures that only the closest fragments are rendered, while stencil testing allows for selective rendering based on a stencil buffer. Alpha blending combines the colors of overlapping fragments to create transparency effects.

5. Framebuffer Operations: The final stage involves operations on the framebuffer, which stores the rendered image. These operations include pixel storage, pixel readback, and display output.

Overall, the graphics pipeline is a series of stages that transform geometric data into a final rendered image, taking into account various operations and optimizations along the way.