System and method for environment mapping
AssigneeSony Computer Entertainment America LLC
InventorsMark Evan Cerny, Pal-Kristian Engstad
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Abstract
A system and method for environment mapping determines a computer-generated object's reflective appearance, based upon position and orientation of a camera with respect to the object's location. The present invention is implemented as a real-time environment mapping for polygon rendering, however, the scope of the invention covers other rendering schemes. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a vector processing unit (VPU) uses a modified reflection formula to compute reflective properties of an object. The modified reflection formula is: r=e−(e·(n+eo))(n+eo)/(1−nz)=e−(e·[nx, ny, nz−1])[nx, ny, nz−1]/(1−nz), where eo=[0,0,−1], and nx, ny, and nz are the components of the surface normal vector, n.
Claims18
A method for environment mapping, comprising the steps of:
- determining a surface normal vector n at a point P on a surface of a reflective object;
- determining an observation vector e from the point P to an observer;
- and
- using a modified reflection formula to compute a reflection vector r based on the surface normal vector n and the observation vector e, the modified reflection formula based on reflection about a pseudo-normal vector n′ at the point P on the surface.
An electronic-readable medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a machine to perform method steps for environment mapping, the method steps comprising:
- determining a surface normal vector n at a point P on a surface of a reflective object;
- determining an observation vector e from the point P to an observer;
- and
- using a modified reflection formula to compute a reflection vector r based on the surface normal vector n and the observation vector e, the modified reflection formula based on reflection about a pseudo-normal vector n′ at the point P on the surface.
A system for environment mapping of a reflective object, comprising:
- a memory configured to store a modified reflection model, the modified reflection model based on reflection about pseudo-normal vectors located at points on a surface of the reflective object;
- a vector processing unit configured to compute reflection vectors using the modified reflection model;
- and
- a graphics processing unit configured to render the reflective object in an image, the quality of the image dependent upon the computed reflection vectors.
A system for environment mapping, comprising:
- means for determining a surface normal vector n at a point P on a surface of a reflective object;
- means for determining an observation vector e from the point P to an observer;
- and
- means for using a modified reflection formula to compute a reflection vector r based on the surface normal vector n and the observation vector e, the modified reflection formula based on reflection about a pseudo-normal vector n′ at the point P on the surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.