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US 2012/0069021 A1Published application
Apparatus and method of early pixel discarding in graphic processing unit
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsSung Jin Son, Seok Yoon Jung, Chan Min Park, Kyoung June Min, Sang Oak Woo
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Abstract
A method to discard pixels early includes a first early depth test maintaining a depth value on a pixel to be discarded by a discard instruction, and a second early depth test updating the depth value on a pixel not to be discarded by the discard instruction. Because of the first and second early depth tests, a number of pixels to be processed by a pixel shading process may be reduced.
Claims19
A three-dimensional (3D) rendering apparatus, comprising:
- a discard shading processor that performs a first early depth test maintaining a depth value and processing a discard shader to selectively discard a pixel;
- and
- a pixel shading processor that performs a second early depth test updating the depth value to selectively discard the pixel, and using a pixel shader to process the pixel,
- wherein the discard shading processor outputs a pixel not discarded to the pixel shading processor.
1 more element
A three-dimensional (3D) rendering method, comprising:
- a discard shading process performing, by at least one processor, a first early depth test maintaining a depth value and processing a discard shader to selectively discard a pixel;
- and
- a pixel shading process performing, by the at least one processor, a second early depth test updating the depth value to selectively discard the pixel, and using a pixel shader to process the pixel,
- wherein a pixel not discarded in the discard shading process is processed in the pixel shading process.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.