US 7,453,458 B1Granted

Drawing method and drawing apparatus for displaying image data about a plurality of objects including semitransparent object and opaque object on computer display screen

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsHaruo Komooka, Kazuhiko Hasegawa

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Abstract

A method is provided for multi-pass semitransparent processing having three passes. The method provides for displaying image data about a plurality of objects including opaque objects and semitransparent objects on a computer display screen by using an updatable Z-buffer as a storage, utilizing information about a depth direction for each object. A hardware resource capable of implementing the multi-pass method is also disclosed. The hardware resource, for example, is implemented as a drawing apparatus which can display image data about a plurality of objects including opaque objects and semitransparent objects on a computer display screen, utilizing information about a depth direction for each object.

Claims5

Dependent claims

A drawing method for displaying image data about a plurality of objects including an opaque object and semitransparent objects, each having information about a depth direction, on a computer display screen by using an updatable Z-buffer as a storage, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) drawing said opaque object alone of the image data, while updating said Z-buffer and executing a hidden surface removal by said Z-buffer algorithm;
(b) drawing said semitransparent objects alone of the image data without updating said Z-buffer and while executing the hidden surface removal by said Z-buffer algorithm;
and
(c) drawing said semitransparent objects alone of the image data, while updating said Z-buffer and executing the hidden surface removal by said Z-buffer algorithm.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.