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. 19, 2013
Filed:
Jul. 22, 2008
Gavin S. P. Miller, Los Altos, CA (US);
Nathan A. Carr, San Jose, CA (US);
Gavin S. P. Miller, Los Altos, CA (US);
Nathan A. Carr, San Jose, CA (US);
Adobe Systems Incorporated, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A system, methods, and computer-readable storage media for rendering height-field images that efficiently compute hard and soft shadows are disclosed. The system and methods may utilize a graphics representation comprising bounded 2D shapes with full 3D fill styles that affect shading, and an occlusion priority that determines visibility. The methods may include scan-coherent techniques for computing shadows from height-fields containing depth discontinuities while incrementally updating a convex hull of surface points. The methods may include a sweep-based algorithm for linear light source illumination of 2.5D graphical models across diagonal height-field cross-sections and/or a shear warp algorithm. Pre-computed (weighted) integrals corresponding to the light direction may be stored in tables according to a corresponding horizon angle and may be used in computing the lit intensity. The results may be free of aliasing artifacts. The methods may be implemented as program instructions, stored on computer-readable media, executable by a CPU and/or GPU.