US 2006/0139365 A1 · Rendering processor, rasterizer and rendering method

Abstract

A shader sends a “completely full” signal to a buffer control unit when a head pixel in a first pass input from a DDA arrives at a final stage of a pipeline process. When the head pixel in the first pass arrives at a stage in the middle of the pipeline process, the shader sends an “almost full” signal to the buffer control unit and a primitive generating unit. Upon receiving the “almost full” signal, the primitive generating unit suspends the generation of rendering primitives in the first pass and starts generating rendering primitives in the second pass. Upon receiving the “almost full” signal, the buffer control unit supplies the rendering primitives in the first pass from the setup processing unit to the DDA via a temporary buffer. Upon receiving the “completely full” signal, the buffer control unit switches to a second pass and directly supplies the rendering primitives in the second pass from the setup processing unit to the DDA.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A rendering processor for multipass rendering in which a rendering process on rendering primitives are divided into a plurality of operation passes, comprising:

a primitive generating unit which generates data related to the rendering primitives processed in each of the operation passes in multipass rendering;
a rasterizer which rasterizes the data related to the rendering primitives in each of the operation passes and input from the primitive generating unit so as to sequentially generate pixel data;
and
a shader which processes the pixel data by executing an instruction in each of the operation passes using a pipeline process, wherein
the shader supplies a pass switching signal to the primitive generating unit with a time margin before first pixel data in a current operation pass arrives at a final stage of the pipeline process, and
the primitive generating unit is prompted by the receipt of the pass switching signal to suspend the generation of the data related to the rendering primitives in the current operation pass and starts generating the data related to the rendering primitives in a next operation pass.

3 more elements

A rasterizer for rasterizing data related to rendering primitives for multipass rendering in which a rendering process on the rendering primitives are divided into a plurality of operation passes, rasterization proceeding in each of the operation passes, comprising:

a setup processing unit which sets up parameters related to digital differential analysis for the data related to the rendering primitives in each of the operation passes;
a temporary buffer which temporarily holds the data related to the rendering primitives output from the setup processing unit;
a digital differential analyzer which transforms the data related to the rendering primitives into pixel data by referring to the parameters related to digital differential analysis;
and
a buffer control unit which switches between indirect supply using the temporary buffer and direct supply bypassing the temporary buffer, for supply of the data related to the rendering primitives from the setup processing unit to the digital differential analyzer.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Rendering processor, rasterizer and rendering method

Life of this patent

Rendering processor, rasterizer and rendering method

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15