Lighting unit for a three-dimensional graphics accelerator with improved processing of multiple light sources
US6016149A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 30, 1997 |
| Grant date | Jan 18, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 30, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T15/50
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A lighting unit for improved processing of multiple light sources. The lighting unit includes an input buffer for receiving one or more attributes corresponding to a given polygon. The lighting unit further includes a first light parameter storage location for storing a first set of light parameters for a first light source illuminating the given polygon, and a second light parameter storage location for storing a second set of light parameters for a second light source illuminating the given polygon. Still further, the lighting unit includes a first light type storage location which stores a lighting routine index for the first light source, and a second light type storage location which stores a lighting routine index for the second light source. The first light type storage location is initialized to be a current light type storage location. The lighting routine indices point to a particular lighting routine to be performed for a given type of light source. The lighting unit finally includes a control unit configured to execute a next light instruction. The next light instruction comprises accessing the current light type storage location to obtain the first lighting routine ind…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.