US 6,184,890 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for rendering objects on a display with added realism

AssigneeSun Microsystems, Inc.

InventorsPatrick J. Naughton, Edward H. Frank

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Abstract

The graphics applications of a 2-D graphics computer system provide each object to be rendered on a 2-D raster display with a pair of rendering reference coordinates (x and y), and a relative depth value (z). Additionally, the computer system is provided with a library of predetermined 2-D images and sounds, and a number of graphics toolkit routines. As the user “moves”, the graphics toolkit routines render selected ones of the predetermined images based on x/z and y/z values of recomputed x and y rendering coordinates and the relative depth value z of the objects, and actuate the sounds if applicable based on their predetermined manners of rendering. As a result, the objects that are further away from the user will move slower than the objects that are closer to the user, thereby introducing the effect of parallax and added realism to the 2-D graphics computer system at a substantially lower cost.

Claims4

Dependent claims

A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system having a display to perform a method for generating and displaying at least two objects at different depths on said display with added realism, the method comprising:

storing at least one predetermined 2-D image for each of said objects, each of said at least one predetermined 2-D image of said objects corresponding to the image of one of said objects to be rendered in a display sector of said raster display, each of said at least one predetermined 2-D image of said objects being defined based on a first and a second image rendering control value;
computing a pair of x and y rendering reference coordinates and a relative depth value (z) for each of said objects, said x and y rendering reference coordinates and said z relative depth values of said objects describing geometric locations of said objects relative to a user's eye set at a predetermined location;
computing a transformed set of coordinates by dividing said pair of x and y rendering reference coordinates by a function of (f(z)) of said z values to generate a parallax effect between said at least two objects;
multiplying the transformed set of coordinates by a selected factor to enhance the parallax effect;
selecting a predetermined 2-D image for each of said objects based on the object's transformed set of coordinates;
and
rendering said objects on said raster display using said selected 2-D images, said first and second image rendering control values of said selected 2-D images being determined using said transformed set of coordinates.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.