US 2022/0036501 A1 · HIERARCHICAL TILING IN A GRAPHICS PROCESSING SYSTEM USING CHAIN SORTING OF PRIMITIVES

Abstract

Tiling engines and methods for hierarchically tiling a plurality of primitives. A chain of sorting units includes a top level sorting unit followed by lower level sorting units, the top level sorting unit determining which of a plurality of regions of a render space each of the plurality of primitives at least partially falls within. For each region a primitive at least partially falls within an identifier of that primitive is stored in a queue. Each of the lower level sorting units selects queues of a preceding sorting unit in the chain to process, and determines which of a plurality of sub-regions of the region associated with that queue each of the primitives at least partially falls within. For each such sub-region an identifier of that primitive is stored in a queue of the lower level sorting unit that is associated with that sub-region. An output unit outputs the primitives identified in the queues of the last lower level sorting unit in the chain on a queue by queue basis.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of storing transformed primitives in a geometry processing phase implemented by a graphics processing system, the method comprising:

maintaining a primitive block for each of a plurality of macro regions of a render space;
receiving a transformed primitive in the render space;
determining which of the plurality of macro regions the transformed primitive at least partially falls within;
adding the transformed primitive to at least one primitive block associated with a macro region that the transformed primitive at least partially falls within;
for each of the at least one primitive block that the transformed primitive is added to, determining whether the primitive block is full;
and
in response to determining that a primitive block is full, storing the primitive block in a local transformed geometry buffer of the graphics processing system for use in a rasterization phase implemented by the graphics processing system, and starting a new primitive block for the macro region associated with that primitive block.

4 more elements

A storing unit for use in a graphics processing system, the storing unit comprising logic configured to, in a graphics processing phase implemented by a graphics processing system:

maintain a primitive block for each of a plurality of macro regions of a render space;
receive a transformed primitive in render space;
determine which of the plurality of macro regions the transformed primitive at least partially falls within;
add the transformed primitive to at least one primitive block associated with a macro region that the primitive at least partially falls within;
for each of the at least one primitive block that the transformed primitive is added to, determine whether the primitive block is full;
and
in response to determining that a primitive block is full, store the primitive block in a local transformed geometry buffer of the graphics processing system for use in a rasterization phase implemented by the graphics processing system and start a new primitive block for the macro region associated with that primitive block.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Hierarchical tiling in a graphics processing system using chain sorting of primitives

Life of this patent

Hierarchical tiling in a graphics processing system using chain sorting of primitives

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20