Patent ID: 6078332
Filing Date: 2000-06-20
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
In a computer controlled graphics display system having a processor coupled to a bus, a display device coupled to said bus and a computer readable memory unit coupled to said bus, a method for recording light intensity within a three dimensional graphics region containing light sources, said method comprising the steps of:a) selecting a selected point within said three dimensional graphics region;b) determining a subset of light sources situated within said three dimensional graphics region that are also within an unobstructed line of sight from said selected point, and accessing the original light intensity for each light source within said subset;c) determining an attenuation factor, relative to said selected point, for each light source within said subset;d) determining a light intensity contribution of each light source of said subset at said selected point based on said original light intensity and said attenuation factor for each light source of said subset;e) summing said light intensity contributions of each light source of said subset to arrive at a total light intensity contribution at said selected point and storing said total light intensity contribution as a texel of a three dimensional light intensity texture map situated within said computer readable memory; andf) repeating steps a) through e) for each point within said three dimensional graphics region resulting in said three dimensional light intensity texture map storing only light intensity values, wherein each light intensity value and its memory location as stored within said three dimensional light intensity texture map have a one-to-one correspondence with a particular (x, y, z) coordinate position of said three dimensional graphics region.