Image processing apparatus

An image processing apparatus for generating image data for displaying a plurality of translucent polygons, comprising:

• a mask generator for generating first mask data indicating effective pixel areas of said translucent polygons in a display screen and translucent Z values indicating depths in said display screen for the respective effective pixels from polygon data including position data of said translucent polygons in said display screen, generating second mask data having, as an effective pixel area, a pixel area having a translucent Z value in the background of a translucent Z value of another processed translucent polygon among said effective pixel areas of said first mask data, executing an exclusion operation to delete said effective pixel area of said generated second mask data from the effective pixel area of generated second mask data of another translucent polygon to thereby generate new second mask data, and performing generation of said new second mask data, translucent polygon by translucent polygon;
• and
• a rendering section for implementing a rendering process on each of said polygons for generation of image data, with respect to said effective pixel area indicated by said new second mask data supplied from said mask generator,
• whereby said mask generator further executes an exclusion operation to delete said effective pixel area of said new second mask data from said effective pixel area of said first mask data to thereby generate new first mask data, and generates next new second mask data based on said new first mask data, and
• said rendering section carries out said rendering process in accordance with said next new second mask data.

An image processing method of generating image data for displaying a plurality of translucent polygons, comprising:

• a mask generation step of generating first mask data indicating effective pixel areas of said translucent polygons in a display screen and translucent Z values indicating depths in said display screen for the respective effective pixels from polygon data including position data of said translucent polygons in said display screen, generating second mask data having, as an effective pixel area, a pixel area having a translucent Z value in the background of a translucent Z value of another processed translucent polygon among said effective pixel areas of said first mask data, executing an exclusion operation to delete said effective pixel area of said generated second mask data from the effective pixel area of generated second mask data of another translucent polygon to thereby generate new second mask data, and performing generation of said new second mask data, translucent polygon by translucent polygon;
• and
• a rendering step of implementing a rendering process on each of said polygons for generation of image data, with respect to said effective pixel area indicated by said new second mask data generated in said mask generation step,
• whereby said mask generation step further executes an exclusion operation to delete said effective pixel area of said new second mask data from said effective pixel area of said first mask data to thereby generate new first mask data, and generates next new second mask data based on said new first mask data, and
• said rendering step carries out said rendering process in accordance with said next new second mask data.

A computer readable recording medium having recorded an image processing program for causing a computer to execute an image processing procedure of generating image data for displaying a plurality of translucent polygons, said image processing procedure comprising:

• a mask generation procedure of generating first mask data indicating effective pixel areas of said translucent polygons in a display screen and translucent Z values indicating depths in said display screen for the respective effective pixels from polygon data including position data of said translucent polygons in said display screen, generating second mask data having, as an effective pixel area, a pixel area having a translucent Z value in the background of a translucent Z value of another processed translucent polygon among said effective pixel areas of said first mask data, executing an exclusion operation to delete said effective pixel area of said generated second mask data from the effective pixel area of generated second mask data of another translucent polygon to thereby generate new second mask data, and performing generation of said new second mask data, translucent polygon by translucent polygon;
• and
• a rendering procedure of implementing a rendering process on each of said polygons for generation of image data, with respect to said effective pixel area indicated by said new second mask data generated in said mask generation procedure,
• whereby said mask generation procedure further executes an exclusion operation to delete said effective pixel area of said new second mask data from said effective pixel area of said first mask data to thereby generate new first mask data, and generates next new second mask data based on said new first mask data, and
• said rendering procedure carries out said rendering process in accordance with said next new second mask data.

A computer readable recording medium having recorded an image processing program for causing a computer to execute an image processing procedure of generating image data for displaying a shadow area on a target polygon to be drawn, said image processing procedure comprising:

• a mask generation procedure of generating first mask data indicating effective pixel areas of shadow polygons defining a shadow volume in a display screen and Z values indicating depths in said display screen for respective effective pixels, from shadow polygon data including position data of said shadow polygons in said display screen, generating second mask data having, as an effective pixel area, a pixel area having a Z value in the foreground of (or in the background of) a Z value of said target polygon among said effective pixel areas of said first mask data, performing odd-even inversion on odd-even data of shadow mask data, which represents the number of shadow polygons positioned in a direction of a line of sight and between said target polygon and a view point (or an infinite point), with respect to said effective pixel area of said second mask data, thereby generating new shadow mask data, and executing generation of said new shadow mask data for all shadow polygons that define said shadow volume;
• and
• a rendering procedure of implementing a rendering process in accordance with said new shadow mask data generated in said mask generation procedure.

An image processing method of generating image data by performing a rendering process on polygons, comprising:

• a step of generating polygon data including position data of said polygons in a display screen;
• a fractal step of, while segmenting a predetermined display screen area into smaller similar tiny areas in a fractal sense, sequentially detecting if said segmented tiny areas are positioned inside said polygons in accordance with said position data, and generating identification (ID) data of the detected displayed polygon for each of said segmented tiny areas;
• and
• a rendering step of generating image data of said segmented tiny areas in accordance with said ID data of said segmented tiny areas generated by said fractal step.

A computer readable recording medium having recorded an image processing program for causing a computer to execute an image processing procedure of generating image data by performing a rendering process on polygons, said image processing procedure comprising:

• a procedure of generating polygon data including position data of said polygons in a display screen;
• a fractal procedure of, while segmenting a predetermined display screen area into smaller similar tiny areas in a fractal sense, sequentially detecting if said segmented tiny areas are positioned inside said polygons in accordance with said position data, and generating identification (ID) data of the detected displayed polygon for each of said segmented tiny areas;
• and
• a rendering procedure of generating image data of said segmented tiny areas in accordance with said ID data of said segmented tiny areas generated by said fractal procedure.