Rendering of soft shadows
US10628992B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 24, 2019 |
| Grant date | Apr 21, 2020 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 24, 2039 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T15/60
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Systems can identify visible surfaces for pixels in an image (portion) to be rendered. A sampling pattern of ray directions is applied to the pixels, so that the sampling pattern of ray directions repeats, and with respect to any pixel, the same ray direction can be found in the same relative position, with respect to that pixel, as for other pixels. Rays are emitted from visible surfaces in the respective ray direction supplied from the sampling pattern. Ray intersections can cause shaders to execute and contribute results to a sample buffer. With respect to shading of a given pixel, ray results from a selected subset of the pixels are used; the subset is selected by identifying a set of pixels, collectively from which rays were traced for the ray directions in the pattern, and requiring that surfaces from which rays were traced for those pixels satisfy a similarity criteria.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.