Painter's algorithm

[6][7] Similarly, the painter's algorithm sorts all the polygons in a scene by their depth and then paints them in this order, farthest to closest.

[8] This simplicity makes it useful in basic computer graphics output scenarios where an unsophisticated render will need to be made with little struggle.

The painter's algorithm prioritizes the efficient use of memory but at the expense of higher processing power since all parts of all images must be rendered.

This means that, for detailed scenes, the painter's algorithm can overly tax the computer hardware.

In a computer graphic system, this can be very efficient since it is not necessary to calculate the colors (using lighting, texturing, and such) for parts of a distant scene that are hidden by nearby objects.

To avoid this, some graphics engines implement "over-rendering",[citation needed] drawing the affected edges of both polygons in the order given by the painter's algorithm.

This means that some pixels are actually drawn twice (as in the full painter's algorithm), but this happens on only small parts of the image and has a negligible performance effect.