Anti-aliasing in a computer graphics system using a texture mapping subsystem to down-sample super-sampled images

In a computer graphics system comprising a rasterizer, a texture mapping subsystem and a frame buffer, apparatus for performing scene anti-aliasing comprising:

• means for defining a supersample image buffer and a single sample image buffer;
• means for using the rasterizer to render a supersampled image to the supersample image buffer;
• and
• means for using the texture mapping subsystem to downsample the supersampled image to the single sample image buffer, wherein the downsampled image in the single sample image buffer is anti-aliased.

Apparatus for scene anti-aliasing in a computer graphics system, comprising:

• a frame buffer containing a supersample image buffer for storing a supersampled image and a single sample image buffer for storing a downsampled image;
• a rasterizer for rendering a supersampled image to the supersample image buffer in response to information defining an image;
• and
• a texture mapping subsystem for downsampling the supersampled image to the single sample image buffer, wherein the downsampled image in the single sample image buffer constitutes an anti-aliased image.

A method for performing scene anti-aliasing in a computer graphics system comprising a rasterizer, a texture mapping subsystem and a frame buffer, comprising:

• defining a supersample image buffer, a front single sample image buffer and a back single sample image buffer in the frame buffer;
• using the rasterizer to render a supersampled image to the supersample image buffer;
• using the texture mapping subsystem to downsample the supersampled image to one of the front and back single sample image buffers;
• and
• swapping the front and back single sample image buffers, so that the downsampled image is available for display.