Shaded Picture System

The Shaded Picture System was a 3D raster computer display processor introduced by Evans & Sutherland in October 1973.

In 1970, Gary Watkins developed a FORTRAN simulator of a faster algorithm that would theoretically generate shaded 3D images in real-time, "if implemented in suitable hardware".

Evans & Sutherland developed a functional prototype of this "suitable hardware", which was later sold as the Shaded Picture System in 1973.

[2]In early 1975, Evans & Sutherland demonstrated a random-access video frame buffer using relatively low-cost semiconductor memory, which was much more capable than the Shaded Picture System.

[8] When interfaced with a (non-shaded) E&S Picture System, the frame buffer had a resolution of 512 by 512 in grayscale and partial color capabilities.

An image of a cube generated by the first algorithm at the University of Utah in 1967.
A color image of a church generated by the FORTRAN simulator of the Watkins algorithm at the University of Utah in 1970.
An image of a Klein bottle generated by an E&S Picture System (left) and displayed shaded and in color on the frame buffer (right) in 1975.