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:
Nov. 23, 1999
Filed:
Jun. 27, 1996
Applicant:
Inventor:
Kent E Griffin, Bellevue, WA (US);
Assignee:
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
345435 ;
Abstract
A method for merging pixel fragments to reduce memory usage in a graphics rendering system. In rendering a graphics scene, geometric primitives of objects in the scene are rasterized to create pixel data including pixel fragments representing partially covered pixels. Lists of pixel fragments having color, depth, and coverage data are stored in a fragment buffer. When a new fragment is generated, an attempt is made to merge the fragment with the last fragment stored for a corresponding pixel location. Fragments are merged if they are within predefined depth and color tolerances.