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:
Oct. 29, 2002
Filed:
May. 18, 1999
S3 Graphics Co., Ltd., , KN;
Abstract
A system and method for implementing a z-range buffer during the generation and display of three-dimensional graphical images. The display screen is partitioned into a plurality of display blocks. For each display block, the z-range buffer stores minimum and maximum depth values (z-values) of a front layer of the block and a back layer of the block. The z-range buffer further stores a bitmask value where each bit in the bitmask associates a pixel in the block to either the front layer or the back layer. When a new triangle is to be displayed, the minimum and/or maximum z-values of the pixels of the triangle are compared with the minimum and/or maximum z-values of the front layer and/or the back layer. By making such z-comparisons, it is often possible to make generalizations of the z-values of the remaining pixels in the triangle without individually analyzing their z-values.