Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Chen Li

Jinyu Li

Xin Tong

Gang Chen

Baining Guo

Eric David Heutchy

Warren Lee Burch

Ke Deng

Matthew Gordon

Bruno C Silva

Hongbo Jiang

Aaron Blake Stover

Roger John Perkins

Yaohua Hu

Alex Pfaffe

Examples described herein improve the quality of the video frames that are rendered and displayed. A system is configured to generate render targets based on instructions received from a source of video content. The system is configured to create and/or access a selection parameter and use the selection parameter to identify one or more of the render targets to be scaled. Once identified, the system scales a native size (e.g., a native resolution) of an identified render target to a larger size (e.g., based on a predetermined scaling factor), thereby generating a higher density render target. The higher density render target, or a corresponding higher density render target texture (RTT), can be used in a rendering pipeline to produce a video frame in a higher output resolution (e.g., 4k resolution) compared to the output resolution specified in the instructions (e.g., 720p resolution).

Scaling render targets to a higher rendering resolution to display higher quality video frames

An exemplary method for emulating a graphics processing unit (GPU) includes executing a graphics application on a host computing system to generate commands for a target GPU wherein the host computing system includes host system memory and a different, host GPU; converting the generated commands into intermediate commands; based on one or more generated commands that call for one or more shaders, caching one or more corresponding shaders in a shader cache in the host system memory; based on one or more generated commands that call for one or more resources, caching one or more corresponding resources in a resource cache in the host system memory; based on the intermediate commands, outputting commands for the host GPU; and based on the output commands for the host GPU, rendering graphics using the host GPU where output commands that call for one or more shaders access the one or more corresponding shaders in the shader cache and where output commands that call for one or more resources access the one or more corresponding resources in the resource cache. Other methods, devices and systems are also disclosed.

VGPU: a real time GPU emulator

Emulating legacy hardware using IEEE 754 compliant hardware is disclosed herein. In some aspects, the emulation includes locating an instruction that includes NaN (not a number) as at least one of an operand or a resultant. The emulation adjusts the resultant of the instruction, via additional code, to produce a final resultant of non-compliant (legacy) hardware. Legacy software, which was written in anticipation of processing by legacy hardware, may then be processed using compliant hardware.

Emulating legacy hardware using IEEE 754 compliant hardware

Embodiments for shader-based finite state machine frame detection for implementing alternative graphical processing on an animation scenario are disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment, the embodiment includes assigning an identifier to each shader used to render animation scenarios. The embodiment also includes defining a finite state machine for a key frame in each of the animation scenarios, whereby each finite state machine representing a plurality of shaders that renders the key frame in each animation scenario. The embodiment further includes deriving a shader ID sequence for each finite state machine based on the identifier assigned to each shader. The embodiment additionally includes comparing an input shader ID sequence of a new frame of a new animation scenario to each derived shader ID sequences. Finally, the embodiment includes executing alternative graphics processing on the new animation scenario when the input shader ID sequence matches one of the derived shader ID sequences.

Shader-based finite state machine frame detection

Embodiments for single-pass bounding box calculation are disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment, the single-pass bounding box calculation includes rendering a first target to a 2-dimensional screen space, whereby the first target includes at least six pixels. The calculation further includes producing transformed vertices in a set of geometry primitives based on an application-specified transformation. The calculation also includes generating six new points for each transformed vertex in the set of geometry primitives. The calculation additionally includes producing an initial third coordinate value for each pixel by rendering the at least six new points generate for each pixel to each corresponding pixel. The calculation further includes producing a post-rasterization value for each pixel by rasterizing the at least six new points rendered to each pixel with each corresponding pixel. Finally, the calculation includes computing bounding box information for the set of geometry primitives based on the produced third coordinate values.

Single-pass bounding box calculation

Systems and methods are presented for real-time realistic river modeling. In one implementation, when provided with the physical features of a modeled terrain, the systems and methods described herein automatically determine a watercourse route in relation to the terrain and calculate river borders. The systems and methods then calculate a surface structure for the river between the borders and map texture coordinates to the surface structure. The systems and methods apply textures at the texture coordinates to provide an animated, view-dependent representation of wave geometries for the modeled water surface including reflection, refraction, and Fresnel effects.

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Chen Li