Patent ID: 7324116
Filing Date: 2008-01-29
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for providing controllable texture sampling, comprising: specifying via a 3-D graphics application programming interface (API) of a host computing system at least one parameter of a sampling footprint utilized in connection with controllable texture sampling of a texture map by a graphics subsystem of the host computing system having a graphics processing unit, wherein: said specifying of at least one parameter includes specifying at least one parameter of a sampling footprint that applies ray-cast volumetric sampling, wherein the ray-cast volumetric sampling includes slicing a volume up into polygons relatively orthogonal to an eye-direction and said specifying further includes specifying a sampling direction of the sampling footprint, and said texture sampling includes iteratively applying the specified sampling direction; transmitting said at least one parameter via the 3-D graphics API to the graphics processing unit to perform said controllable texture sampling in accordance with said at least one parameter; and texture sampling said texture map in accordance with said specified at least one parameter of said sampling footprint; and storing, in a computer-readable medium, the texture sampled texture map.