Patent ID: 7696995
Filing Date: 2010-04-13
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for determining light illumination in a graphical environment, comprising: dividing, using a processor, a surface area of an object into a plurality of cells, wherein a size of each cell of the surface area is determined in part on both a distance and an angle of illumination within the graphical environment between each light source and each cell for processing efficiency and quality, wherein dividing is selected to be performed during either one of a preprocessing stage before rendering each cell or a real-time stage comprising the rendering of each cell, based on the processing efficiency and quality, and wherein dividing performed during the real-time stage is performed dynamically in response to a change in one of the distance or the angle of illumination; for each cell in the plurality of cells, creating an orientation field defining a surface orientation of the cell, wherein the orientation field includes a vector that is normal to the surface of the cell; deriving a multi-dimensional light map value which defines a combined illumination of the surface area by at least one light source; determining at least one cell to be drawn from the plurality of cells based on illumination of the surface area by at least one light source; and for each cell to be drawn, determining a light illumination value of the cell to be drawn based on a dot product between at least one basis of the multi-dimensional light map value and at least one basis of the vector of the orientation field corresponding to the cell to be drawn, wherein determining the light illumination value is selected to be performed at either one of the preprocessing stage or the real-time stage, and wherein determining the light illumination value is further based on a game logic control of the surface area; and rendering at least one cell based at least in part on the determined light illumination value of the at least one cell on a display.