Patent · US Active

Method for distributed clipping outside of view volume

US7746355B1 · kind B1 · utility

15Cited by
8References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 24, 2007
Grant dateJun 29, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 25, 2028

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T15/30
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A distributed clipping scheme is provided, view frustum culling is distributed in several places in a graphics processing pipeline to simplify hardware implementation and improve performance. In general, many 3D objects are outside viewing frustum. In one embodiment, clipping is performed on these objects with a simple algorithm in the PA module, such as near Z clipping, trivial rejection and trivial acceptance. In one embodiment, the SE and RA modules perform the rest of clipping, such as X, Y and far Z clipping. In one embodiment, the SE module performs clipping by way of computing a initial point of rasterization. In one embodiment, the RA module performs clipping by way of conducting the rendering step of the rasterization process. This approach distributes the complexity in the graphics processing pipeline and makes the design simpler and faster, therefore design complexity, cost and performance may all be improved in hardware implementation.

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