Does computer graphics have a practic use besides games/movies/pictures? [closed]

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I am learning Computer Graphics at the university and I'm trying to figure out the use of it ... and I fail.

Only games and movies stick in to my mind, I'm sure there are other uses for, let's say, graphic algorithms, openGL, 2D and 3D, 3ds Max ...

Is it useful later on ? Where do I need it ?

Thank you

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Medical and scientific visualization, simulations, preservation of cultural heritage come to mind.

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First of all there is of course 3D:

• CAD (did you know that today all cars, planes, boats or actually anything is designed via a computer and a CAD software?)
• Scientific visualization, terrain visualization (think of google-earth), scientific simulations (any kinds of simulations actually, from fluids to sounds, or deformations, molecules, and so on...), medical visualization and assistance during surgery, etc...
• User interfaces (not only 3D on the screen but also new input devices need to be designed)
• ...

And of course 2D is part of Computer Graphics. Think of digital photography, image filter algorithms, real-time encoding and decoding of highly compressed video, digital cameras chips, etc... List is endless.

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How about the 3d CAD software that engineers and architects use?

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In addition to what the others have said think about simulators. Flights probably have to be simulated these days in order to avoid crashes. While it can be done without any representaton people will need to see the output in the form of some visual representation and thus you need graphics. Even this website has graphics on it. Depending on the browser it might not be hardware accelerated but it is a graphcs context.
Even console based applications provide you with text that is represented visually and that's because human eyes are the easiest way of offering output.