Silicon Graphics, Incorporated

D&s Consultants, Inc.

Roger Crawfis

Barry Glenn Becker

Eric Noble

Fredrick Kuck

Eric Wagner

A multi-resolution texture mapping system suitable for large scale terrain rendering using commodity graphics processing units (GPU). The GPU vertex and fragment shaders are used to implement the clip-mapping functionality. The terrain texture is represented by a combination of a mip-map and a multi-level clip-map having independent origins and off-set values. The independent clip-map levels may be independently updated. The offset values allow the origins to be associated with a reference point in a scene to be rendered. The desired clip-map level to be used to render a particular fragment may be determined using the base 2 logarithm of the maximum screen-space derivative of the source texture required by the terrain geometry to be drawn. If the desired clip-map level is non-integer and lies between two clip-map levels, appropriate texel data is created by interpolating between the bounding clip-map levels. This interpolation allows a multi-resolution texture mapping to be displayed.

System and method for asynchronous continuous-level-of-detail texture mapping for large-scale terrain rendering

A method, system, and computer program product for a new data visualization tool for determining distribution weights that represent values of a categorical variable and then mapping a distinct color to each of the weights so as to visually represent the different values of the categorical variable (or data attribute) in a scatter plot. The distinct colors of a splat are based on the distribution of categorical variable values in a corresponding bin, the distribution of which is represented by a vector. The vector contains as many locations as the number of different values for the categorical variable. The value stored in each location is typically a weight or percentage for that particular value of the categorical variable. Each location in the vector is also associated with a distinct color. The coloring of a single splat with multiple colors involves the rendering of each vector by looping through each vector location, and then based on the weight stored in that location, randomly selecting the same percentage of triangles in the splat for the color associated with that vector location. A threshold is used to help reduce confusion and decrease processing time by summing all weights below the threshold and assigning to it a single neutral color. A slider or other controller can be used to vary the value of the threshold.

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Dublin, OH, United States of America

Roger Crawfis