The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 02, 1998
Filed:
Aug. 28, 1995
Applicant:
Inventors:
Herbert G Derby, Boulder Creek, CA (US);
Brent Pease, San Jose, CA (US);
Assignee:
Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F / ; G06F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
395122 ; 395121 ; 395509 ;
Abstract
A method for increasing the speed of a Z-buffer process. The method operates on the observation that groups of points in a scan-line of a polygon are either all visible or all obscured by existing points in the frame buffer. The method processes visible points separately from obscured points. The method only calculates changes in point intensity for the groups of visible points. In addition, the termination of the two separate processes is controlled by placing sentinels at the edge of each scan-line of the polygon so that the comparison of the point's z-values also act as a check for process termination.