System and method for managing visual structure, timing, and animation in a graphics processing system

A computer system, the computer system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• system memory;
• and
• one or more physical storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions representing client program, a client manager, and a compositor component, wherein the client program is configured to:
• send a compositing change request to the compositor, the compositing chain request requesting a compositing chain between the client program, the compositor component, and the client manager;
• access a media instruction block containing rendering instructions representing a structural update to a graphical scene, the graphical scene represented in a tree data structure maintained by the compositor, the media instruction block referenced through a handle that was previously returned from a rendering call;
• and
• in response to the request, communicate with the compositor component to register the media instruction block with the compositor;
• asynchronously communicate the media instruction block to the compositor component in accordance with flow control components that mediate the incoming flow of instructions into the compositor component between a plurality of clients including the client program;
• and
• wherein the compositor component is configured to:
• receive the compositing change request from the client program;
• communicate with the client program to register the media instruction block with the compositor component:
• asynchronously communicate with the client program to receive the media instruction block in accordance with the flow control components;
• update a handle table in the compositor to include the handle for the media instruction block such that the handle can be resolved to the media instruction block for subsequent incorporation of the structural update into the tree data structure for the graphical scene;
• subsequently process the media instruction block to incorporate the structural update into the tree structure to change at least one timing value in the tree data structure to produce an animation effect for an image corresponding to data in the tree data structure that is output over at least two frames such that the client manager can maintain a tree data structure containing composited data corresponding to the structured content.

A computer program product for use at a computer system including a processor, a system memory, and a graphics subsystem, the computer system also including a compositor, the compositor configured to manage the composing, animation, and rendering of graphical scenes which are provided to the graphics subsystem, the computer system also including a plurality of clients that can provide instructions to the compositor for modifying graphical scenes, the computer program product comprising physical storage medium storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed at the processor, cause the computer system to perform the method including the following:

• access a media instruction block containing rendering instructions representing a structural update to a graphical scene, the graphical scene represented in a tree data structure maintained by the compositor, the media instruction block referenced through a handle that was previously returned from a rendering call at client manager;
• communicate from the compositor to a client manager to register the media instruction block with the compositor with the;
• asynchronously communicate the media instruction block to the compositor in accordance with flow control components that mediate the incoming instruction flow into the compositor between the plurality of clients;
• update a handle table in the compositor to include the handle for the media instruction block such that the handle can be resolved to the media instruction block for subsequent incorporation of the structural update into the tree data structure for the graphical scene;
• and
• subsequently process the media instruction block to incorporate the structure update into the tree structure to change at least one timing value in the tree data structure to produce an animation effect for an image corresponding to data in the tree data structure that is output over at least two frames.