Patent ID: 6184888
Filing Date: 2001-02-06
Classification: A61J,G06Q,G06T,G07F

Abstract:
Rendering apparatus for rendering an image in response to three-dimensional graphics data, the apparatus comprising:a path through which the rendering apparatus can receive the three-dimensional graphics data, the three-dimensional graphics data including polygon data and additionally including texture data defining a texture, the texture data including texture size data and sets of pattern data, the pattern data in each of the sets representing the texture with a different resolution, the pattern data constituting a majority of the texture data;a pixel/depth buffer including first memory cells, the first memory cells corresponding to pixels of a rendering screen;a reference buffer including second memory cells, the second memory cells corresponding to the pixels of the rendering screen; anda rendering engine that performs an initial rasterizing operation using only the polygon and texture size data to generate and to store in the reference buffer, for each of the pixels of the rendering screen, a texture identifier, a layer depth value indicating a texture resolution, and texture coordinates; that identifies, in response to the texture identifier, the layer depth and the texture coordinates stored in the reference buffer for each of the rendering screen pixels, ones of the pattern data required to render the image; that acquires via the path the ones of the pattern data identified as being required to render the image; and that generates image data representing the image using the pattern data acquired via the path, the path having a data transfer rate substantially smaller than data transfer rates between the rendering engine and the buffers.