US 12,462,464 B2 · Allocation of primitives to primitive blocks

Abstract

An application sends primitives to a graphics processing system so that an image of a 3D scene can be rendered. The primitives are placed into primitive blocks for storage and retrieval from a parameter memory. Rather than simply placing the first primitives into a primitive block until the primitive block is full and then placing further primitives into the next primitive block, multiple primitive blocks can be “open” such that a primitive block allocation module can allocate primitives to one of the open primitive blocks to thereby sort the primitives into primitive blocks according to their spatial positions. By grouping primitives together into primitive blocks in accordance with their spatial positions, the performance of a rasterization module can be improved. For example, in a tile-based rendering system this may mean that fewer primitive blocks need to be fetched by a hidden surface removal module in order to process a tile.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of processing primitives for rendering an image of a three dimensional scene in a computer graphics processing system in which primitive data is stored in blocks of a data store by primitive allocation logic of the computer graphics processing system, wherein the primitives are defined by vertices, the method comprising:

for each of a plurality of received primitives:
(i) comparing an indication of a spatial position in the scene of the received primitive with at least one indication of a spatial position in the scene of at least one block of the data store, wherein the at least one block of the data store comprises vertex data for vertices of previously received primitives, and
(ii) storing primitive data for the received primitive in a block of the data store based on a result of the comparison, such that the received primitive is stored in a block in accordance with its spatial position, wherein the primitive data for the received primitive comprises vertex data for vertices of the received primitive;
and
processing the primitive data stored in the blocks of the data store in the computer graphics processing system to render the image.

2 more elements

A computer graphics processing system configured to process primitives to render an image of a three dimensional scene, wherein the primitives are defined by vertices, the computer graphics processing system comprising:

a data store configured to store primitive data in blocks of the data store;
and
primitive allocation logic configured to, for each of a plurality of received primitives:
(i) compare an indication of a spatial position in the scene of the received primitive with at least one indication of a spatial position in the scene of at least one block of the data store, wherein the at least one block of the data store comprises vertex data for vertices of previously received primitives, and
(ii) store primitive data for the received primitive in a block of the data store based on a result of the comparison, such that the received primitive is stored in a block in accordance with its spatial position, wherein the primitive data for the received primitive comprises vertex data for vertices of the received primitive.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Allocation of primitives to primitive blocks

Life of this patent

Allocation of primitives to primitive blocks

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20