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AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsMark T. Finch, Matthew B. MacLaurin, Stephen B. Coy, Eric S. Anderson, Lili Cheng
Estimating the term…
Described is a virtual environment built by drawing stacks of three-dimensional objects (e.g., discrete blocks) as manipulated by a user. A user manipulates one or more objects, resulting in stack heights being changed, e.g., by adding, removing or moving objects to/from stacks. The stack heights are maintained as sample points, e.g., each point indexed by its associated horizontal location. A graphics processor expands height-related information into visible objects or stacks of objects by computing the vertices for each stack to draw that stack's top surface, front surface and/or side surface based upon the height-related information for that stack. Height information for neighboring stacks may be associated with the sample point, whereby a stack is only drawn to where it is occluded by a neighboring stack, that is, by computing the lower vertices for a surface according to the height of a neighboring stack where appropriate.
In a computing machine that generates output representing a computer-simulated environment, a method comprising, receiving user interaction corresponding to an object being manipulated in the computer-simulated environment, communicating data to graphics hardware, the data corresponding to height-related information of the object as a result of the manipulation, and rendering graphics based on the height-related information to output an updated representation of the computer-simulated environment as a result of the user interaction.
The method of claim comprising, computing vertices for a front or side surface to be rendered based upon the height-related information.
In a computing machine that generates output representing a computer-simulated environment, a system comprising, a mechanism including a user interface by which a user stacks a representation of an object at a horizontal location, the object stacked at the horizontal location upon a base surface or upon one or more other objects or fractional parts of objects, the mechanism communicating height-related information of the object to graphics hardware that renders the object at a vertical position that corresponds to the height-related information.
One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.