Coverage adaptive multisampling

A non-transitory computer-readable medium that includes instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to adaptively render antialiased pixels by performing the steps of:

• receiving a geometric primitive;
• decomposing the geometric primitive into pixel fragments corresponding to pixels that are at least partially covered by the geometric primitive;
• determining coverage information of the geometric primitive indicating geometric coverage for the pixels that are at least partially covered by the pixel fragments, wherein each pixel includes a center sample;
• adaptively determining, for each one of the pixel fragments, within a shading unit of a graphics rendering pipeline, whether to shade each said pixel via a multisampling technique or a supersampling technique based on the coverage information,
• wherein each said pixel is shaded using the multisampling technique if the coverage information indicates that the center sample is covered and,
• wherein the pixel includes a center sample and a first additional sample, and the pixel is shaded using the supersampling technique if the coverage information indicates that the center sample is not covered but at least the first additional sample is covered;
• and
• computing the color of the pixel using the multisampling technique or the supersampling technique, as determined, based on shading information included in the pixel fragment.

A computing device configured to adaptively render antialiased graphics images, the computer system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processing unit that includes a graphics rendering pipeline that includes:
• a geometry processing unit configured to receive a geometric object and to transform the geometric object into a geometry primitive,
• a rasterization unit configured to receive a geometry primitive from the setup engine and convert the geometry primitive into one or more pixel fragments and determine coverage information of the geometric primitive indicating geometric coverage for the pixels that are at least partially covered by the one or more pixel fragments, wherein each pixel includes a center sample,
• a shader unit configured to perform shading operations generate a shaded pixel by:
• receiving the one or more pixel fragments and coverage information,
• adaptively determining, for each one of the pixel fragments, within a shading unit of a graphics rendering pipeline, whether to shade each said pixel via a multisampling technique or a supersampling technique based on the coverage information,
• wherein each said pixel is shaded using the multisampling technique if the coverage information indicates that the center sample is covered and,
• wherein the pixel includes a center sample and a first additional sample, and the pixel is shaded using the supersamplinq technique if the coverage information indicates that the center sample is not covered but at least the first additional sample is covered, and
• computing the pixel color using the multisampling technique or the supersampling technique, as determined, based on shading information included in the pixel fragment,
• a raster operations unit configured to perform discard and update operations associated with the shaded pixel, and
• a frame buffer configured to store the shaded pixel.