Patent · US Active

Programmable visible surface compositing

US8026915B1 · kind B1 · utility

3Cited by
7References
45Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 8, 2007
Grant dateSep 27, 2011
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 14, 2029

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T15/00
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Programmable or user-defined visibility functions can be defined to achieve rendering effects and eliminate rendering errors. A renderer traverses the set of geometry samples potentially visible to an image sample. Rather than accumulate opacity and color in strict depth order, the renderer can invoke visibility functions associated with some or all of the geometry samples. Each geometry sample's visibility function can access attributes of any other geometry sample associated with the image sample. Furthermore, each geometry sample's visibility function can identify the position of its associated geometry sample and any other geometry samples in the depth sequence of geometry samples associated with an image sample. A visibility function can return any arbitrary value based on attributes of its associated geometry sample, attributes of other geometry samples associated with the image sample, and/or the position of geometry samples in the depth sequence associated with the image sample.

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