Patent · US Expired

Apparatus and method for sharing antialiasing memory across multiple displays

US6756978B1 · kind B1 · utility

7Cited by
4References
17Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 19, 1999
Grant dateJun 29, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 19, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T15/005
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for generating three-dimensional images by reusing multisample memory. Pixels corresponding to a first section of the overall display are multisampled. The multisampled pixel values corresponding to the first section of the display are stored in a multisample memory. The final pixel values corresponding to the first section of the display are stored in a frame buffer. Thereupon, multisampling is performed on those pixels belonging to a second section of the overall display. The same multisample memory is reused to store the multisampled pixel values corresponding to the second section of the display. In other words, the same piece of multisample memory is shared between the first and second portions of the display, thereby minimizing the amount of multisample memory that is needed. The final pixel values corresponding to the second section of the display are stored in the frame buffer. This process is repeated until multisampling has been performed over the entire display area. Meanwhile, pixel values from the frame buffer are being rendered out for display.

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