Radon transform for advanced 3d graphics and games?
I've been studying the use of OpenGL and DirectX and even though I am at an intermediate level, I believe this is where the use of bump maps, light maps etc comes into play. These are encapsulated in the idea of a Shader. The hardest part about the shader and lighting to work correctly with the 3D object with respect to the angle of the camera view directly depends if your normals are defined correctly. As for what you are describing it does make sense using 3D approximation, however my linear algebra is a little rusty, I am not sure if the conventional 4x4 matrices will work, and when it comes to motion with rotations you might have to redefine your quaternions too.