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:
Sep. 16, 2008
Filed:
Jun. 21, 2005
Kevin T. Lefebvre, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Ross A. Cunniff, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Kevin T. Lefebvre, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Ross A. Cunniff, Fort Collins, CO (US);
NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method for implementing occlusion testing prior to processing a primitive command. The method includes the steps of determining that an occlusion test should be performed on an enclosed primitive, saving the primitive command on a deferred list, and disabling a rendering functionality in hardware. The method also includes the step of performing an occlusion query on the enclosed primitive where a pixel count is generated that indicates how many pixels within a bounding volume defined around the enclosed primitive are visible. One advantage of this method is that it provides occlusion testing functionality for graphics applications that do not use the occlusion testing functionality provided by graphics APIs. Implementing occlusion testing functionality in this fashion reduces rendering time, thereby increasing rendering performance.