US 2014/0176544 A1 · TESSELLATING PATCHES OF SURFACE DATA IN TILE BASED COMPUTER GRAPHICS RENDERING

Abstract

A method and system for culling a patch of surface data from one or more tiles in a tile based computer graphics system. A rendering space is divided into a plurality of tiles and a patch of surface data read. Then, at least a portion of the patch is analysed to determine data representing a bounding depth value evaluated over at least one tile. This may comprise tessellating the patch of surface data to derive a plurality of tessellated primitives and analysing at least some of the tessellated primitives. For each tile within which the patch is located, the data representing the bounding depth value is then used to determine whether the patch is hidden in the tile, and at least a portion of the patch is rendered, if the patch is determined not to be hidden in at least one tile.

Claims22

Dependent claims

A method of culling hidden tessellated primitives in a tile based graphics system, comprising:

subdividing a rendering space into a plurality of tiles;
reading a patch of surface data;
tessellating the patch of surface data to derive a plurality of tessellated primitives;
analysing at least a portion of the patch comprising at least some of the tessellated primitives to determine data representing a bounding depth value evaluated over at least one tile;
for each tile within which the patch is located, using the data representing the bounding depth value to determine whether the patch is hidden in the tile;
and
rendering at least a portion of the patch if the patch is determined not to be hidden in at least one tile.

4 more elements

A system for culling hidden tessellated primitives in a graphics system having a rendering space subdivided into a plurality of regions, each comprising a plurality of pixels, the system comprising:

an interface configured to receive a patch of surface data;
a tessellation processor configured to tessellate the patch of surface data to derive a plurality of tessellated primitives;
a depth calculator configured to analyse at least a portion of the patch comprising at least some of the plurality of tessellated primitives to determine data representing a bounding depth value evaluated over at least one tile;
a depth test processor configured to, for each tile within which the patch is located, use the data representing the bounding depth value to determine whether the patch is hidden in the tile;
and
a renderer configured to render at least a portion of the patch if the patch is determined not to be hidden in at least one tile.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Tessellating patches of surface data in tile based computer graphics rendering

Life of this patent

Tessellating patches of surface data in tile based computer graphics rendering

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims22