Patent · US Active

Rendering of soft shadows

US11816782B2 · kind B2 · utility

0Cited by
2References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 2, 2022
Grant dateNov 14, 2023
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 2, 2042

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.