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:
Jan. 18, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 30, 1997
Jerome E Lengyel, Seattle, WA (US);
John Snyder, Redmond, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A layered graphics rendering pipeline for real time 3D animation independently renders terms in a shading model to separate image layers. The layered pipeline factors the shading model into separate image layers and renders geometry to these layers independently. Each layer can have an independent update rate and a spatial resolution different than the resolution of the output images. A compositor that supports one or more image operators composites the factored layers into an output image to generate frames of animation. To reduce rendering overhead, factored terms can be rendered once and then re-used in later frames by warping the initial rendering.