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:
Feb. 06, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 25, 1998
James F. Blinn, Bellevue, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A method for simulating fog in 3D graphics rendering applications correctly computes fogged pixel colors even in graphics scenes where two surfaces overlap and the frontmost surface is partially transparent. The method computes the fog for each surface according to the following formula: ƒF atop A, where ƒ is the amount of fog, F is the color of the fog, and A is the color of the pixel being fogged. Each fogged surface can be rendered independently to a separate image layer, called a fogged image layer. The graphics rendering system can then simulate the motion of a fogged image layer by moving the fogged layer in an (x,y) plane without re-computing the fogged pixels, or by moving the fogged layer in the z-direction and independently re-computing the moving fogged layer with a new value for the amount of fog applied to the image layer. The method applies to scenes where there are several fogged layers and to scenes that simulate fire and glow with pixels that are totally transparent but have non-zero color values.