Industrial Technology Research Institute

Jan-Han Hsiao

Chun-Kai Huang

Wei-Kuo Chia

An apparatus and method for blending pixels of a source object and a destination plane of view of 3-D space. The source object overlaps the destination plane of view. Furthermore, the 3-D space may contain an atmospheric light diffusion, i.e., fog or smoke, which produces a 'fog effect.' The apparatus includes multiplexer circuitry which receives first, second, third, fourth and fifth control signals. The multiplexer circuitry also receives a fog blend factor, a source alpha, a destination alpha, a source color, a destination color, a fog color and one. In response to the control signals, the multiplexer circuitry selects three outputs. In particular, in response to the first, second and third control signals, the multiplexer selects as the first output, either: the destination alpha, the source alpha, the fog blend factor, one, the destination color, or one minus one of the aforementioned choices. In response to the first, fourth and fifth control signals, the multiplexer circuitry selects as the second output either: the destination alpha, the source alpha, the fog blend factor, one, the source color, or one minus one of the aforementioned choices. In response to the first control signal, the multiplexer circuitry selects as the third output the destination color or the fog color. The apparatus also includes calculation circuitry which produces a first product, of the source color and the first output of the multiplexer circuitry, produces a second product of the second and third outputs of the multiplexer circuitry, and thereafter adds the two products together.

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Hsinchu, Taiwan

Jan-Han Hsiao