# US 2014/0152684 A1 · Methods of and apparatus for using textures in graphics processing systems > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2014/0152684 A1 - Document ID: US20140152684A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 13/690,159 - Filed: 2012-11-30 - Published: 2014-06-05 - Earliest claimed: 2012-11-30 - Assignees: Arm Limited - Applicants: Arm Limited - Inventors: Jorn Nystad; Andreas Engh-Halstvedt; Edvard Sorgard; Thomas Jeremy Olson; Marius Bjorge - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140152684A1 ## CPC - G06T 15/04: Texture mapping - G06T 11/40: Filling planar surfaces by adding surface attributes, e.g. adding colours or textures - G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL ## Abstract A graphics virtual texturing system in which textures stored in a storage medium of a host system are divided into respective pages that are then loaded into a local memory of a graphics processing system for use. Each page of a graphics texture has an associated fade factor value that can be set by an application that is to use the texture to control the contribution that the page will be used to make to any texturing result that is generated using the texture page in question. The graphics processing system then controls the contribution of texture data from a texture page to texturing result data to be generated in accordance with the fade factor value associated with the texture page in question. This allows texture paging to be done in a more visually pleasing manner than just a binary “page-is-here”/“page-is-not-here” switch. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method of using a texture in a graphics processing system, the method comprising: associating respective sub-regions within a graphics texture to be used by a graphics processing system with respective fade factor values that can be set by an application that is to use the texture to control the contribution that the sub-region will be used to make to any texturing result that is generated using the texture sub-region in question. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the step of: associating respective sub-regions within a graphics texture to be used by a graphics processing system with respective fade factor values that can be set by an application that is to use the texture to control the contribution that the sub-region will be used to make to any texturing result that is generated using the texture sub-region in question comprises: associating respective sub-regions within a given mipmap level of a graphics texture to be used by the graphics processing system with respective fade factor values that can be set by an application that is to use the texture to control the contribution that the sub-region will make to any texturing result that is to be generated using the mipmap level sub-region in question. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: the graphics processing system, when using a sub-region of a texture that has an associated fade factor value to generate texturing result data, controlling the contribution of texture data from the texture sub-region to the generated texturing result data in accordance with the fade factor value associated with the texture sub-region. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the texturing operation is configured to ensure that the weight that is to be used for a given region of a mipmap level in the texturing output result does not exceed the fade factor that is associated with the region of the mipmap level in question. ### Claim 5 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, further comprising: adjusting the level of detail for the texturing operation such that the mipmaps being used to generate a texturing output result are sampled and filtered at weights that do not exceed their associated fade factors. ### Claim 6 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein: the texturing operation is configured to be able to sample values from more than two mipmap levels when generating a texturing output result, in dependence on fade factor values associated with the mipmap levels. ### Claim 7 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the texturing operation is configured such that the level of detail that is used for a given texturing operation does not exceed the sum of the fade factors of plural mipmap level sub-regions covering the texture positions in question. ### Claim 8 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, further comprising: determining whether to adjust the level of detail to be used for a texturing operation based on one or more fade factors associated with one or more mipmap levels of the texture. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, further comprising at least one of: adjusting the level of detail for the texturing operation based on the fade factor associated with a given single, particular mipmap level; and adjusting the level of detail for the texturing operation based on the fade factors associated with plural mipmap levels. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the fade factor for a texture sub-region is set to a low value when the sub-region is initially loaded into a local memory of the graphics processing system, and then progressively increased over time while the texture sub-region remains in the local memory of the graphics processing system. ### Claim 11 A method of using a graphics texture to generate texturing result data in a graphics processing system in which respective sub-regions within a given mipmap level of a graphics texture to be used by a graphics processing system can be associated with respective fade factor values that can be set by an application that is to use the texture, the method comprising: the graphics processing system, when using a sub-region of a mipmap level of a texture that has an associated fade factor value to generate texturing result data, controlling the contribution of texture data from the mipmap level sub-region to the generated texturing result data in accordance with the fade factor value associated with the mipmap level sub-region. ### Claim 12 A graphics processing system, comprising: a graphics processing unit that can use graphics textures to generate texturing result data for use when generating rendering output data to be generated by the graphics processing unit; and processing circuitry configured to associate respective sub-regions within a graphics texture to be used by the graphics processing unit to generate texturing result data with respective fade factor values that can be set by an application that is to use the texture to control the contribution that the sub-region will be used to make to any texturing result that is generated using the texture sub-region in question. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The system of claim 12, wherein: the processing circuitry configured to associate respective sub-regions within a graphics texture to be used by the graphics processing unit to generate texturing result data with respective fade factor values that can be set by an application that is to use the texture to control the contribution that the sub-region will be used to make to any texturing result that is generated using the texture sub-region in question is configured to: associate respective sub-regions within a given mipmap level of a graphics texture to be used by the graphics processing system with respective fade factor values that can be set by an application that is to use the texture to control the contribution that the sub-region will make to any texturing result that is to be generated using the mipmap level sub-region in question. ### Claim 14 (depends on 12) The system of claim 12, wherein the graphics processing unit further comprises processing circuitry configured to: when using a sub-region of a texture that has an associated fade factor value to generate texturing result data, control the contribution of texture data from the texture sub-region to the generated texturing result data in accordance with the fade factor value associated with the texture sub-region. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, wherein the texturing operation is configured to ensure that the weight that is to be used for a given region of a mipmap level in the texturing output result does not exceed the fade factor that is associated with the region of the mipmap level in question. ### Claim 16 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, wherein the processing circuitry of the graphics processing unit is further configured to: adjust the level of detail for the texturing operation such that the mipmaps being used to generate a texturing output result are sampled and filtered at weights that do not exceed their associated fade factors. ### Claim 17 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, wherein: the texturing operation is configured to be able to sample values from more than two mipmap levels when generating a texturing output result, in dependence on fade factor values associated with the mipmap levels. ### Claim 18 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, wherein the texturing operation is configured such that the level of detail that is used for a given texturing operation does not exceed the sum of the fade factors of plural mipmap level sub-regions covering the texture positions in question. ### Claim 19 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, wherein the processing circuitry of the graphics processing unit is further configured to: determine whether to adjust the level of detail to be used for a texturing operation based on one or more fade factors associated with one or more mipmap levels of the texture. ### Claim 20 (depends on 19) The system of claim 19, wherein the processing circuitry of the graphics processing unit is further configured to perform at least one of: adjusting the level of detail for the texturing operation based on the fade factor associated with a given single, particular mipmap level; and adjusting the level of detail for the texturing operation based on the fade factors associated with plural mipmap levels. ### Claim 21 (depends on 12) The system of claim 12, wherein the fade factor for a texture sub-region is set to a low value when the sub-region is initially loaded into a local memory of the graphics processing system, and then progressively increased over time while the texture sub-region remains in the local memory of the graphics processing system. ### Claim 22 A graphics processing system, comprising: a graphics processing unit that can use graphics textures to generate texturing result data for use when generating rendering output data to be generated by the graphics processing unit; and processing circuitry configured to associate respective sub-regions within a given mipmap level of a graphics texture to be used by the graphics processing unit to generate texturing result data with respective fade factor values that can be set by an application that is to use the texture; and wherein the graphics processing unit comprises processing circuitry configured to, when the graphics processing unit is to use a sub-region of a mipmap level of a texture that has an associated fade factor value to generate texturing result data, control the contribution of texture data from the mipmap level sub-region to the generated texturing result data in accordance with the fade factor value associated with the mipmap level sub-region. ### Claim 23 A data processing system comprising: a host system; a graphics processing system; and a storage medium of or accessible to the host system that can store textures for use by the graphics processing system; and wherein: the host system comprises: a host processor that can execute applications that require graphics processing operations of the graphics processing system; and processing circuitry for loading pages of textures that are stored in the storage medium of or accessible to the host system into the local memory of the graphics processing system for use by the graphics processing system to generate texturing output data; and the graphics processing system comprises: a graphics processing unit that can use graphics textures to generate texturing result data for use when generating rendering output data to be generated by the graphics processing unit; and processing circuitry configured to associate respective sub-regions of a graphics texture to be used by the graphics processing unit to generate texturing result data with respective fade factor values that can be set by an application that is to use the texture; and wherein the graphics processing unit comprises processing circuitry configured to, when the graphics processing unit is to use a sub-region of a texture that has an associated fade factor value to generate texturing result data, control the contribution of texture data from the texture sub-region to the generated texturing result data in accordance with the fade factor value associated with the texture sub-region. ### Claim 24 A computer readable storage medium storing computer software code which when executing on a processor performs a method of using a graphics texture to generate texturing result data in a graphics processing system in which respective sub-regions within a graphics texture to be used by a graphics processing system can be associated with respective fade factor values that can be set by an application that is to use the texture, the method comprising: when using a sub-region of a texture that has an associated fade factor value to generate texturing result data, controlling the contribution of texture data from the texture sub-region to the generated texturing result data in accordance with the fade factor value associated with the texture sub-region.