The concepts of single buffering and double buffering are essential to understanding how animation is being displayed. In the former, only one color buffer (a memory that holds colored pixels) is responsible for display and rendering (Angel & Shreiner, 2014). When animation is occurring and the colors are changing rapidly, single buffering might lead to stutters and distorted imagery. In other words, since the user looks directly at the frames that are being modified at the same time, they might notice the immediate adjustments to the buffers. In summary, single buffering is still functional, but it might occasionally present only a partial display due to its limitations.
Double buffering is a more advanced version that provides two buffers, namely, the front and back buffers. The front buffers are responsible for the direct image display, while the back buffers render and prepare the consequent visual information. In other words, the rendering process operates in the following manner: back buffer clearing – rendering in the back buffer – buffer swap (Angel & Shreiner, 2014). It is crucial to note that WebGL utilizes double buffering and cannot be functional with single buffering.
Hence, single buffering and double buffering are particularly useful in animation and address the issue of display and rendering. Double buffering is arguably more effective since it allows to mitigate some of the frequent problems, such as flicker and screen distortions (Angel & Shreiner, 2014). However, there are some disadvantages to double buffering as well, including more significant video memory requirements and potential speed issues. These differences are generally noticeable on low-end systems with outdated monitors and GPUs. Ultimately, both types are functional, but most modern applications, particularly real-time, require double buffering to operate.
Reference
Angel, E., & Shreiner, D. (2014). Interactive computer graphics: A top-down approach with WebGL (7th edition). Pearson.