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US 2007/0165029 A1Published application
Method and apparatus for generating shadow by using an adaptive shadow volume algorithm
AssigneeVIA Technologies, Inc.
InventorsRuen-Rone Lee, Shao-Chen Peng
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for generating shadow by using an adaptive shadow volume algorithm are disclosed. By accumulating the number of Z pass and Z fail during shadow volume rendering, the performance can be improved by adaptively selecting the z pass algorithm or the z fail algorithm. Accordingly, one of the algorithms (z-pass or z-fail) with better performance is used as the shadow volume algorithm for next frame.
Claims19
An apparatus for generating shadow by using an adaptive shadow volume algorithm, comprising:
- a graphics unit using a plurality of pixels for rendering a frame wherein said graphics unit includes accumulation of the number of Z pass and the number of Z fail by a predetermined shadow volume algorithm to have a Z fail statistic value and a Z pass statistic value while rendering the shadow volume of said frame;
- and,
- a selection unit selecting one algorithm from either the Z pass or the Z fail algorithm according to the Z pass statistic value and the Z fail statistic value after said graphics unit renders said frame by the predetermined shadow volume algorithm.
A method for generating shadow by using an adaptive shadow volume algorithm, comprising:
- rendering all objects of a frame wherein each object is represented by a plurality of polygons and said frame is rendered by a plurality of pixels;
- using a predetermined shadow volume algorithm to render the shadow volumes of said frame and simultaneously accumulate a Z pass statistic value and a Z fail statistic value;
- and,
- selecting one algorithm from either Z pass algorithm or Z fail algorithm as the predetermined algorithm according to the Z pass statistic value and the Z fail statistic value after the predetermined shadow volume algorithm renders the shadow volume of said frame.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.