US 5,841,441 AGranted

High-speed three-dimensional texture mapping systems and methods

AssigneeVirtus Corporation

InventorDavid A. Smith

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Abstract

A three-dimensional texture is mapped onto a graphically-displayed surface by interpolating locations for elements of the texture using an associated distance relationship which locates the element with respect to the surface and a reference location spaced a distance apart from the surface. A first array of points representing the surface are stored, each of the points having an element of the three-dimensional texture and a distance to the element associated therewith. Upon a command to move the displayed surface, a new location for each point of the first array is computed, to obtain a second array representing the moved surface. A location for each element of the three-dimensional texture associated with each point of the first array is interpolated from the corresponding point in the second array and a reference location spaced apart from the moved surface.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A method of mapping a three-dimensional texture onto a surface which is displayed on a graphical display, comprising the steps of:

storing a first array of points representing the surface, each point of the first array having an element of the three-dimensional texture and a texture distance which locates the element with respect to the surface, associated therewith;
in response to a command to move the surface, computing a new location for each point in the first array to obtain a corresponding second array representing the moved surface;
for each point in the first array, computing a three-dimensional reference displacement between the corresponding point of the second array and a reference location spaced a reference distance apart from the point;
computing a scaled three-dimensional reference displacement for each point of the first array by dividing the corresponding three-dimensional reference displacement by the corresponding reference distance;
computing a three-dimensional texture displacement for each element of the three-dimensional texture associated with each point of the first array by multiplying the corresponding scaled three-dimensional reference displacement by the texture distance associated with the element;
and
computing a location for each element of the three-dimensional texture associated with each point in the first array by adding the corresponding texture displacement to the location of the corresponding point in the second array.

4 more elements

A method of mapping a three-dimensional texture onto a surface which is displayed on a graphical display, comprising the steps of:

storing a first array of points representing the surface, each point of the first array having an element of the three-dimensional texture and a texture distance which locates the element with respect to the surface, associated therewith;
in response to a command to move the surface, computing a new location for each point in the first array to obtain a corresponding second array representing the moved surface;
computing a three-dimensional reference displacement between a point of the second array and a reference location spaced a reference distance apart from the point;
computing a scaled three-dimensional reference displacement by dividing the three-dimensional reference displacement by the reference distance;
for each corresponding element of the three-dimensional texture for each point of the first array, computing a corresponding three-dimensional texture displacement by multiplying the scaled three-dimensional reference distance by the texture distance associated with the element;
and
computing a location for each element of the three-dimensional texture associated with each point of the first array by adding the corresponding texture displacement to the location for the corresponding point in the second array.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.