Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Jason Scanlin

Mark Evan Cerny

David Simpson

Michael Mantor

Steven Osman

Richard B Stenson

Jun Murakawa

Christopher Ho

Dmitri Shtilman

Graphics processing renders a scene with a plurality of different rendering parameters for different locations on a screen area. Each primitive of a batch of primitives belonging to an object covering at least two of the zones of the screen area is assembled to a screen space. Assembling each of the primitives includes iterating each primitive with a primitive assembler for each of the zones covered by the object. Each said zone is associated with a different set of screen space transform parameters used to transform locations of vertices in the batch of primitives from a homogenous coordinate space to a screen space that is not flat. The zones are arranged to minimize an overlap between zones.

Method for efficient re-rendering objects to vary viewports and under varying rendering and rasterization parameters

A graphics processing may include implementing a vertex shader and a pixel shader with a GPU. Vertex parameter values generated by the vertex shader may be stored in a memory. The pixel shader may access the vertex parameter values stored in the memory. Accessing the vertex parameter values may include disabling or bypassing hardware that performs interpolation on vertex parameter values. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Scheme for compressing vertex shader output parameters

Graphics processing renders a scene with a plurality of different rendering parameters for different locations on a screen area. Graphics depicting one or more objects mapped to a screen area are processed. The screen area includes a plurality of zones, each having a different set of rendering parameters. Primitives belonging to one of the objects that covers at least two of the zones are received. Each primitive is assembled to screen space by iterating each primitive over each zone it covers using the rendering parameters of the respective zone with each iteration.

A graphics processing may include implementing a vertex shader and a pixel shader with a GPU. Vertex parameter values may be compressed with the vertex shader and compressed vertex parameter values may be written to a cache. The pixel shader may access the compressed vertex parameter values that were written to the cache and decompress the compressed vertex parameter values. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Graphics processing may include implementing a vertex shader and a pixel shader with the GPU. Vertex indices output from a vertex shader may be written to a cache. The vertex indices written to the cache may be accessed with the pixel shader and vertex parameter values associated with the vertex indices may be accessed from a memory unit with the pixel shader. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Fragment shaders perform vertex shader computations

Graphics processing renders a scene with a plurality of different rendering parameters for different locations on a screen area. A rendering parameter context is set up for each of a plurality of zones and each zone is assigned a zone index. An object covering at least two zones of the screen area is set up in memory. These zones are assigned to corresponding zone indices as part of setting up the object. A draw is issued for the object. Alternatively, graphics depicting one or more objects mapped to a screen area are processed. The screen area includes a plurality of zones, each having a different set of rendering parameters. Primitives belonging to one of the objects that covers at least two of the zones are received. Each primitive is assembled to screen space by iterating each primitive over each zone it covers using the rendering parameters of the respective zone with each iteration.

A set of graphics primitive information for a virtual object may be processed with compute shader running on a graphics processing unit (GPU) to generate a modified set of primitive information. The modified set of primitive information may be passed to a vertex shader running on the GPU. The vertex shader may perform vertex shading on the modified set of primitive information. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Using compute shaders as front end for vertex shaders

A GPU is configured to read and process data produced by a compute shader via the one or more ring buffers and pass the resulting processed data to a vertex shader as input. The GPU is further configured to allow the compute shader and vertex shader to write through a cache. Each ring buffer is configured to synchronize the compute shader and the vertex shader to prevent processed data generated by the compute shader that is written to a particular ring buffer from being overwritten before the data is accessed by the vertex shader. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Graphics processing hardware for using compute shaders as front end for vertex shaders

A method for processing graphics for a GPU program, translating instructions from a shading language into an intermediate language with a front end of a GPU compiler; translating the instructions from the intermediate language into a GPU object language with a back end of the GPU compiler; wherein the instructions in the shading language include instructions defining a layout of resources for the GPU program.

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Los Angeles, CA, United States of America

Jason Scanlin