Multi-texturing by walking an appropriately-sized supertile over a primitive

US7023444B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Sun Microsystems Inc. · US

Inventors

• Brian D. Emberling · San Francisco, US
• Michael G. Lavelle · Saratoga, US
• Assana M. Fard · Sunnyvale, US
• Nandini Ramani · Saratoga, US
• David Kehlet · Los Altos, US
• Michael A. Wasserman · Redwood City, US
• Ewa M. Kubalska · San Jose, US
• Mark E. Pascual · San Jose, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 20, 2003
• Grant date: Apr 4, 2006
• Expiry date: Mar 12, 2024

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06T15/04
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A rendering unit positions a supertile so that it intersects a primitive. The rendering unit repeatedly walks over bins of the supertile, applying a layer of texture to the bins of the supertile in each iteration of said repeated walking. The rendering unit advances to the next texture layer after having applied the current texture layer to each candidate bin of the supertile. The results of each texture layer application to the bins may be stored in a texture accumulation buffer. The size of the supertile corresponds to the size of the texture accumulation buffer. After applying a last layer of texture to the bins of the supertile, the supertile may be advanced to a new position. The rendering unit traverses the primitive with the supertile so that the union of areas visited by the supertile covers the primitive.