Patent · US Expired

Processor for controlling the display of rendered image layers and method for controlling same

US6008820A · kind A · utility

146Cited by
14References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 27, 1996
Grant dateDec 28, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 27, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T15/60
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A gsprite engine circuit reads a display list identifying gsprite image layers to be composited for display, retrieves gsprite image data from an external memory, and transforms the gsprite data to display device coordinates. The gsprite image layers represent independently rendered graphical objects in a graphics scene. The gsprite engine can simulate the motion of the graphical objects in a sequence of display images by performing affine transformations on the gsprite image layers. The interface to the gsprite engine circuit includes the display list and gsprite header blocks. The display list enumerates the gsprites to be composited as a display image. The header blocks describe a gsprite transform, which can be an affine transform, used to transform gsprites to display device coordinates. The header blocks also provide an array of references to image blocks or "chunks" comprising the gsprite.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.