Nvidia Corporation

Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Nvida Corporation

Craig Michael Wittenbrink

Henry Packard Moreton

Erik Ordentlich

Roger L Allen

John Stephen Montrym

Emmett Michael Kilgariff

Brian Keith Cabral

Sean Jeffrey Treichler

Rui Manuel Bastos

Douglas A Voorhies

Karim Abdalla

Vimal S Parikh

Franklin C Crow

Christian Rouet

Gary M Tarolli

Johnny S Rhoades

Christopher James Goodman

Thomas Melvin Ogletree

John Douglas Tynefield, Jr

Ziyad Sami Hakura

Michael J M Toksvig

David Conrad Tannenbaum

David Kirk McAllister

Andrew D Bowen

Justin S Legakis

Walter Robert Steiner

Dominic Acocella

Hans Wolters

Robert J Hasslen

Scott R Whitman

Robert W Gimby

Michael Jm Toksvig

Karim M Abdalla

Johnny B Rhoades

A system, computer readable medium, and method for sub-frame scan-out are disclosed. The method includes the steps of dividing a frame into a plurality of slices. For each slice in the plurality of slices, the steps further include sampling a sensor associated with a head mounted display to generate sample data corresponding to the slice; adjusting one or more parameters associated with rendering operations for the slice based on the sample data; and rendering primitive data associated with a model according to the rendering operations to generate image data for the slice. Each slice is a portion of the frame and corresponds to different sample data from the sensor. Thus, adjusting of the parameters is different for each slice of the frame.

Sub-frame scanout for latency reduction in virtual reality applications

In a raster stage of a graphics processor, a method for parallel fine rasterization. The method includes receiving a graphics primitive for rasterization in a raster stage of a graphics processor. The graphics primitive is rasterized at a first level to generate a plurality of tiles of pixels. The titles are subsequently rasterized at a second level by allocating the tiles to an array of parallel second-level rasterization units to generate covered pixels. The covered pixels are then output for rendering operations in a subsequent stage of the graphics processor.

Method for parallel fine rasterization in a raster stage of a graphics pipeline

A method for rendering a plurality of line primitives. The method includes the step of accessing a first line primitive and a second line primitive of a line strip. For a junction between the first line primitive and the second line primitive, the first line primitive and the second line primitive are geometrically modified to generate an abutting edge between the first line primitive and the second line primitive. A majority status is assigned to a pixel on the abutting edge. A first color of the first line primitive or a second color of the second line primitive is allocated to the pixel in accordance with the majority status.

Method and system for rendering connecting antialiased line segments

A scalable shader architecture is disclosed. In accord with that architecture, a shader includes multiple shader pipelines, each of which can perform processing operations on rasterized pixel data. Shader pipelines can be functionally removed as required, thus preventing a defective shader pipeline from causing a chip rejection. The shader includes a shader distributor that processes rasterized pixel data and then selectively distributes the processed rasterized pixel data to the various shader pipelines, beneficially in a manner that balances workloads. A shader collector formats the outputs of the various shader pipelines into proper order to form shaded pixel data. A shader instruction processor (scheduler) programs the individual shader pipelines to perform their intended tasks. Each shader pipeline has a shader gatekeeper that interacts with the shader distributor and with the shader instruction processor such that pixel data that passes through the shader pipelines is controlled and processed as required.

Scalable shader architecture

The VPC unit and setup unit of a graphics processing subsystem perform culling operations. The VPC unit performs culling operations on geometric primitives falling within a specific criteria, such as having a property within of a numerical range limit. This limit reduces the complexity of the VPC unit. As increasing rendering complexity typically produces a large number of small primitives, the VPC unit culls many primitives despite its limitations. The VPC unit also includes a cache for storing previously processed vertices in their transformed form, along with previously computed culling information. This increases the VPC unit throughput by reducing the number of memory accesses and culling operations to be performed. The setup unit performs culling operations on any general primitive that cannot be culled by the VPC unit. By performing a first series of culling operations in the VPC unit, the processing burden on the setup unit is decreased.

Culling before setup in viewport and culling unit

Graphics processing devices and methods are provided for culling small primitives that do not cover any pixels. A boundary (e.g., a diamond) is defined around a pixel center, with pixel coverage being determined for some types of primitives based on whether the boundary is crossed. The boundaries divide the raster into internal regions and external regions. Each region is assigned a unique canonical identifier. Each vertex of a primitive is assigned the canonical identifier corresponding to the region that contains that vertex. The canonical coordinates of the vertices are used to cull primitives that do not satisfy the boundary crossing coverage rules for any pixels.

Diamond culling of small primitives

Clipping techniques introduce additional vertices into existing primitives without requiring creation of new primitives. For an input triangle with one vertex on the invisible side of a clipping surface, a quadrangle can be defined. The vertices of the quadrangle are the two internal vertices of the input triangle and two clipped vertices. For determining attribute values for pixel shading, three vertices of the quadrangle are selected, and a parameter value for an attribute equation is computed using the three selected vertices. For determining pixel coverage for the quadrangle, the three edges that do not correspond to the edge created by clipping are used.

Clipping with addition of vertices to existing primitives

Method and apparatus for generating a primitive extension defining a generalized primitive is described. The primitive extension defines the connectivity and vertices used to specify a collection of connected primitives, such as a strip-type or fan-type generalized primitive. A generalized primitive includes a number of vertices where some of the vertices are shared with neighboring primitives. The primitive extension includes an originating primitive, vertex data, and connectivity information. The primitive extension provides a general interface for describing a variety of connected primitives.

Primitive extension

A sort middle graphics architecture comprising a host interface for receiving raw primitive data from a graphics application; a geometry processing module coupled to the host interface for receiving the raw primitive data from the host interface and generating sort middle traffic data, said geometry processing module a having a built-in compression module for compressing the sort middle traffic data; and a rasterization module coupled to the host interface for receiving the compressed sort middle traffic data and rasterizing the data, said rasterization module having a built-in decompression module for decompressing the sort middle traffic data before it is rasterized.

Systems and methods for compressing rasterization setup data within a sort middle graphics architecture

An apparatus for semiautomatic classification of volume data provides the ability to generate visually significant representations of the important regions of the data set. The representations may be indicated by opacity or color changes, for example. The apparatus comprises programming to compute a two-dimensional (2D) histogram over a volume of scalar values, &#x192;, versus edge values edge( ). A common edge value is the gradient magnitude, edge ( )=|&#x2207;&#x192;|.

Apparatus and method for semi-automatic classification of volume data

A geometry compression method for sort middle, screen space, graphics of the standard graphics pipeline. The pipeline processes a 3D database having geometric objects such as triangles and textures into a display image which may be shown to the user on a display monitor. Lossless compression is achieved through redundancy elimination. Triangles are processed following their transformation to screen space, so that the vertex world 3D locations are determined in their projection to the screen 2D locations. Triangles may also be processed by back projecting the screen space scanlines to test locations against the world space triangles. The general technique is to identify the portions of the data that have little or no effect on the rendered output and remove them during compression. Specific examples disclosed include full packing, constant color, delta coding, edge sharing, slope coding, and color quantization.

Sort middle, screen space, graphics geometry compression through redundancy elimination

Texture mapping computer graphics apparatus includes an associating interpolator circuit for determining first interpolated opacity weighted colors and a first interpolated opacity in response to texture coordinates and texture colors and corresponding texture opacities, an associated color compositing circuit for a compositing the first interpolated opacity weighted colors and second interpolated opacity weighted colors to provide new opacity weighted colors, an associated opacity compositing circuit for compositing the first interpolated opacity and a second interpolated opacity to provide a new opacity, an unassociating circuit responsive to the new opacity weighted colors and the new opacity for providing unassociated colors, and a frame buffer for storing the unassociated new colors and the new opacity.

Associated color texture processor for high fidelity 3-D graphics rendering

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Craig Michael Wittenbrink