Patent ID: 6795080
Filing Date: 2004-09-21
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
A graphics system comprising:a texture memory configured to store a plurality of texture layers; a texture pipe; a texture accumulation buffer; and a vertex processor configured to (a) receive a first stream of primitives, wherein each primitive of said first stream specifies a subset of the texture layers in said texture memory, (b) store primitives of said first stream, starting with a first primitive of said first stream, on a current batch list in a batch buffer until a size estimate of the batch exceeds a size limit or until a second primitive of said first stream is identified which does not specify the same set of texture layers as the first primitive, wherein the vertex processor is configured to dispatch the primitives of the current batch list to the texture pipe; wherein the texture pipe is configured to (c) access the texture memory for data values from an Ith layer of the texture layers specified by said first primitive from the texture memory, (d) apply the data values to color vectors corresponding to the primitives of the current batch list, (e) store the color vectors after said application of the data values into the texture accumulation buffer, and (f) to repeatedly perform (c), (d) and (e) so that the I th layer successively runs through each of the texture layers specified by the first primitive; wherein said samples, after a final iteration of (c), (d) and (e) with respect to the current batch list, are usable to generate a video output signal.