Patent ID: 7176917
Filing Date: 2007-02-13
Classification: G06F,G06T

Abstract:
1. Apparatus for defining surface and lighting effects to be applied to a three-dimensional surface in a computer, comprising: means for defining three dimensional objects having animation over time and associated lighting and surface properties; means for enabling an author to associate a custom shader with a defined three dimensional object to define the lighting and surface properties of the object, wherein the shader is defined as a graph of subshaders, wherein each subshader is defined to perform a real time function from an application programming interface of a real-time runtime rendering engine; means for enabling an author to edit the custom shader using visual programming techniques to illustrate the graph and to allow interconnection of subshaders as nodes of the graph including selection of subshaders from a library of subshaders wherein the subshaders are defined to perform real time functions from the application programming interface of the real-time runtime rendering engine; and means for interactive rendering of the animation using the custom shader and applying the custom shader to a real-time rendering engine that implements the application programming interface of the real-time runtime rendering engine.