Hidden surface removal problem with minimal pipeline can be solved

Correct method: Painter's algorithm.

Explanation: Painter's algorithm sorts surfaces (polygons or objects) by depth and renders them from farthest to nearest. Because nearer surfaces are drawn last, they overwrite pixels of farther surfaces, achieving hidden surface removal without a per-pixel depth buffer.

Typical steps:

• Sort polygons or objects by their depth (usually by a representative depth, such as centroid or farthest point).

• Render the sorted polygons in back-to-front order so that nearer geometry overwrites farther geometry.

• Handle special cases (e.g., intersecting or cyclically overlapping polygons) by splitting polygons or using additional algorithms.

Limitations:

• Fails for intersecting or cyclic overlapping polygons unless primitives are split or special handling is added.

• Can be less efficient and more complex to manage for large scenes compared with hardware-accelerated depth-buffer (Z-buffer) approaches.

Note: A commonly used alternative in modern pipelines is the Z-buffer (depth buffer), which performs per-pixel depth testing during rasterization and handles visibility robustly without requiring object sorting.