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:
Jul. 31, 2001
Filed:
Aug. 25, 1998
Nacho Sanz-Pastor, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Luis A. Barcena, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Silicon Graphics, Incorporated, Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for volumetric three-dimensional fog rendering is provided. To add fog effects to an image, a host processor computes the location of the eye-point relative to the image to be fogged. Using the eye-point location, the host processor generates a three-dimensional fog texture and a blending function. The three-dimensional fog texture and blending function are downloaded or otherwise passed by the host processor to the graphics processor. The graphics processor then renders the primitives that make up the image. When rendering is complete, the graphics processor applies the tree-dimensional fog texture in an additional rendering pass. The method may then be repeated, to create animated fog effects such as swirling or wind-driven fog.