Patent ID: 8698820
Filing Date: 2014-04-15
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a graphics processor in which lists of graphics commands to be executed by the graphics processor are prepared and stored in memory prior to the commands being executed by the graphics processor, said lists include commands instructing the graphics processor to draw primitives, the method comprising: performing a first processing pass over a sequence of commands in a portion of one of said lists, wherein there are primitives to be drawn in response to the commands in the sequence, said first processing pass deriving data that can aid the selection of at least one primitive from said primitives to be drawn for processing in respect of each sampling point of a set of sampling points; storing the derived data; and performing a second processing pass over the sequence of commands to process the primitives to be drawn using the stored data to help select at least one primitive from said primitives to be drawn to be processed for each sampling point in the second processing pass, wherein a conditional branch command is included at the end of the sequence of commands for triggering the second processing pass after the first processing pass by causing the graphics processor to return to the beginning of the sequence of commands and re-execute the sequence of commands, and by triggering a change in state of the graphics processing system when the branch is taken, wherein the condition for taking the branch is the current state of the graphics processing system.