Editing Z-buffering (section)

===W-buffer===

To implement a w-buffer,<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.sjbaker.org/steve/omniv/love_your_z_buffer.html | title = Learning to Love your Z-buffer | author = Steve Baker | access-date = 2018-01-03}}</ref> the old values of <math>z</math> in camera space, or <math>w</math>, are stored in the buffer, generally in [[floating point]] format. However, these values cannot be linearly interpolated across screen space from the vertices—they usually have to be [[Multiplicative inverse|inverted]], interpolated, and then inverted again. The resulting values of <math>w</math>, as opposed to <math>z'</math>, are spaced evenly between <math>\textit{near}</math> and <math>\textit{far}</math>. There are implementations of the w-buffer that avoid the inversions altogether.

Whether a z-buffer or w-buffer results in a better image depends on the application.