Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US6707458?ie=ISO-8859-1&dq=%22robert+sheehan%22
Timestamp: 2014-08-20 09:48:45
Document Index: 796267709

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60']

Patent US6707458 - Method and apparatus for texture tiling in a graphics system - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign in<nobr>Advanced Patent Search</nobr>PatentsA graphics system including a custom graphics and audio processor produces exciting 2D and 3D graphics and surround sound. The system includes a graphics and audio processor including a 3D graphics pipeline and an audio digital signal processor. Textured surfaces are created using indirect texture tiling....http://www.google.com/patents/US6707458?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6707458 - Method and apparatus for texture tiling in a graphics systemAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS6707458 B1Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 09/726,221Publication dateMar 16, 2004Filing dateNov 28, 2000Priority dateAug 23, 2000Fee statusPaidPublication number09726221, 726221, US 6707458 B1, US 6707458B1, US-B1-6707458, US6707458 B1, US6707458B1InventorsMark M. Leather, Yoshitaka YasumotoOriginal AssigneeNintendo Co., Ltd.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (100), Non-Patent Citations (188), Referenced by (23), Classifications (6), Legal Events (3) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetMethod and apparatus for texture tiling in a graphics systemUS 6707458 B1Abstract A graphics system including a custom graphics and audio processor produces exciting 2D and 3D graphics and surround sound. The system includes a graphics and audio processor including a 3D graphics pipeline and an audio digital signal processor. Textured surfaces are created using indirect texture tiling. A set of direct and indirect texture coordinates are defined. The indirect coordinates are used in an indirect lookup operation in an indirect tile index map to obtain tile select offsets. The offsets are used to modify the direct texture coordinates, and the modified texture coordinates are then used to obtain a texture tile from a tile definitions map. The selected tile is then displayed. In another embodiment, the offsets are biased and combined with the direct texture coordinates to produce a second set of modified texture coordinates. The second set is used to obtain a second texture tile from the tile definitions map. The two selected tiles are then blended together to provide a synthetic texture tile having a pseudo-3D effect.
We claim: 1. A method of texture tiling, comprising;
defining a set of direct texture coordinates; defining a set of indirect texture coordinates; using the indirect coordinates to obtain an offset value; combining the offset value with at least one of the direct texture coordinates to produce a first set of modified texture coordinates; using the first set of modified texture coordinates to obtain a first texture tile form a tile definitions map; biasing the offset value; modifying the direct texture coordinates using the biased offset value; combining the modified offset value with at least one of the direct texture coordinated of produce a second set of modified texture coordinates; using the second set of modified texture coordinates to obtain a second texture tile form the tile definitions map; and blending the first texture tile and the second texture tile to produce a synthesized texture tile. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein using the indirect coordinates includes looking up the offset value from an indirect tile index map.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the indirect texture coordinates are the same as the direct texture coordinates.
4. The method of claim 1, further including using a blending factor when blending which determines a ratio of blend between the first texture tile and the second texture tile.
5. The method of claim 2, further including obtaining the blending factor from the indirect texture index map when performing the looking up step.
6. The method of claim 2, further including defining the tile definitions map as a tile layer definitions stack.
SPECIFICATION This application is filed in accordance with 35 U.S.C. �119(e)(1) and claims the benefit of the provisional application Ser. No. 60/227,033 filed on Aug. 23, 2000, entitled �Method And Apparatus For Texture Tiling In A Graphics System.�
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is related to the following co-pending applications identified below (by title and attorney docket number), which focus on various aspects of the graphics system described herein. Each of the following applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
provisional Application No. 60/161,915, filed Oct. 28, 1999 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/465,754, filed Dec. 17, 1999, both entitled �Vertex Cache For 3D Computer Graphics�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,912, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,215, filed Nov. 28, 2000 , both entitled �Method and Apparatus for Buffering Graphics Data in a Graphics System�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,889, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,419, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Graphics Pipeline Token Synchronization�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,891, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,382, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Method And Apparatus For Direct and Indirect Texture Processing In A Graphics System�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,888, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,367, filed Nov. 28, 2000 , both entitled �Recirculating Shade Tree Blender For A Graphics System�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,892, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,218, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Method And Apparatus For Efficient Generation Of Texture Coordinate Displacements For Implementing Emboss-Style Bump Mapping In A Graphics Rendering System�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,893, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,381 filed Nov. 28, 2000. , both entitled �Method And Apparatus For Environment-Mapped Bump-Mapping In A Graphics System�,
provisional Application No. 60/227,007, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,216, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Achromatic Lighting in a Graphics System and Method�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,900, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,226, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Method And Apparatus For Anti-Aliasing In A Graphics System�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,910, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,380, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Graphics System With Embedded Frame Buffer Having Reconfigurable Pixel Formats�,
utility Application Ser. No. 09/585,329, filed Jun. 2, 2000, entitled �Variable Bit Field Color Encoding�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,890, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,227, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Method And Apparatus For Dynamically Reconfiguring The Order Of Hidden Surface Processing Based On Rendering Mode�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,915, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,212 filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Method And Apparatus For Providing Non-Photorealistic Cartoon Outlining Within A Graphics System�,
provisional Application No. 60/227,032, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,225, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Method And Apparatus For Providing Improved Fog Effects In A Graphics System�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,885, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,664, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Controller Interface For A Graphics System�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,899, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,667, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Method And Apparatus For Pre-Caching Data In Audio Memory�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,913, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,378, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Z-Texturing�,
provisional Application No. 60/227,031, filed Aug. 23, 2000 entitled �Application Program Interface for a Graphics System�,
provisional Application No. 60/227,030, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,663, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Graphics System With Copy Out Conversions Between Embedded Frame Buffer And Main Memory�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,886, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,665, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Method and Apparatus for Accessing Shared Resources�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,894, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/726,220, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Graphics Processing System With Enhanced Memory Controller�,
provisional Application No. 60/226,914, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,390, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Low Cost Graphics System With Stitching Hardware Support For Skeletal Animation�, and
provisional Application No. 60/227,006, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and its corresponding utility application Ser. No. 09/722,421, filed Nov. 28, 2000, both entitled �Shadow Mapping In A Low Cost Graphics System�.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to computer graphics, and more particularly to interactive graphics systems such as home video game platforms. Still more particularly this invention relates to an improved texture tiling method and apparatus which uses indirect texture index maps to reference texture tiles in a tile definition map and map the texture tiles onto a rendered primitive. The invention further enables synthesized (blended) texture tiles to be created from a tile definitions map and mapped onto a primitive in a manner which prevents the appearance of repeating texture patterns.
A problem graphics system designers confronted in the past was how to create realistic looking surface detail on a rendered object without resorting to explicit modeling of the desired details with polygons or other geometric primitives. Although surface details can be simulated, for example, using myriad small triangles with interpolated shading between vertices, as the desired detail becomes finer and more intricate, explicit modeling with triangles or other primitives places high demands on the graphics system and becomes less practical. An alternative technique pioneered by E. Catmull and refined by J. F. Blinn and M. E. Newell is to �map� an image, either digitized or synthesized, onto a surface. (See �A Subdivision Algorithm for Computer Display of Curved Surfaces� by E. Catmull, Ph.D. Thesis, Report UTEC-CSc-74-133, Computer Science Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah., December 1994 and �Texture and Reflection in Computer Generated Images� by J. F. Blinn and M. E. Newell, CACM, 19(10), October 1976, 452-457). This approach is known as texture mapping (or pattern mapping) and the image is called a texture map (or simply referred to as a texture). Alternatively, the texture map may be defined by a procedure rather than an image.
Most 3-D graphics rendering systems now include a texturing subsystem for retrieving textures from memory and mapping the textures onto a rendered object surface. A problem confronting graphics system designers is how to provide more sophisticated texture related effects such as �texture tiling� in an efficient and advantageous manner. Texture tiling generally involves mapping textures in the form of texture tiles on a tile-by-tile basis onto a rendered object surface, such as a 2-D surface. A texture tile can be defined by a tile shaped portion of a texture stored in texture memory. An array or matrix of different tiles can be defined in texture memory. The size and shape of the tile can be selected to facilitate mapping of the tile onto a particular rendered surface. The tile size can vary and can be defined such that numerous tiles are required to cover a rendered surface. Once defined, texture tiles can be placed in specific locations over the rendered surface to create a textured surface.
This tiling effect has been achieved in the past by, for example, drawing a polygon for each desired tile. However, this technique can be expensive in terms of processing overhead and memory usage. In addition, a problem resulting from prior art tiling techniques is that the tiled surface can have a repeating pattern that can be visually perceived by the viewer. Repeating patterns result from the fact that there is generally a limited number of different texture tiles available to the programmer when tiling a surface. Thus, large surfaces, such as walls, floors, ground cover or the like, will use the same texture tiles numerous times in order to completely cover the surface. Such repeated use of the same tiles can detract from the realism of a rendered scene, due to the fact that, in many instances, the human eye can pick up on and see the repeating texture pattern resulting from the tiling process. A further problem confronting graphics systems designers is how to take advantage of indirect texturing processing to perform texture tiling operations. Thus, while significant work has been done in the past in connection with texture tiling, further improvements are possible and desirable.
The present invention solves this problem by providing techniques and arrangements that can be used to efficiently implement texture tiling in a graphics system. The present invention further enables more realistic texture tiled surfaces to be created that reduce or even eliminate the ability of a viewer of the displayed textured surface to notice any repeating patterns in the texture. The invention also enables pseudo-3D textures to be created by blending between textures tiles. The invention further enables indirect texture processing hardware to be used in an efficient and effective manner to achieve texture tiling.
In accordance with one aspect provided by the invention, the texture tiling method includes:
generating texture coordinates;
modifying the texture coordinates using an indirect tile index map;
using the modified texture coordinate to select a texture tile from a tile definitions map; and
displaying the selected texture tile.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the pseudo-3D tiling method includes:
defining a set of direct texture coordinates;
defining a set of indirect texture coordinates;
using the indirect texture coordinates to obtain an offset value;
combining the offset value with at least one of the direct texture coordinates to produce a first set of modified texture coordinates;
using the first set of modified texture coordinates to obtain a first texture tile from a tile definitions map
biasing the offset value;
modifying the direct texture coordinates using the biased offset value;
combining the modified offset value with at least one of the direct texture coordinates to produce a second set of modified texture coordinates;
using the second set of modified texture coordinates to obtain a second texture tile from the tile definitions map; and
blending the first texture tile and the second texture tile to produce a synthesized texture tile.
FIGS. 10A-10K are a series of block diagrams illustrating the relative progression of pixel direct coordinate data and pixel indirect texture data in the example texturing pipeline implementation as a result of interleaved direct and indirect texture processing;
FIG. 18a is a general functional block diagram of a first tiling method in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the instant invention;
FIG. 18b is a general functional block diagram of a second tiling method in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the instant invention;
FIG. 19 is a more detailed functional block diagram of the first tiling method of FIG. 18a; FIGS. 20a-20 c show three examples of the first tiling method of the instant invention;
FIG. 21 is an example logical block diagram of the first tiling method of the instant invention;
FIG. 22 is a flowchart of the second tiling method of FIG. 14b; FIG. 23 is an example of the second tiling method of the present invention;
FIG. 24 is an example logical block diagram of the second tiling method of the instant invention;
FIGS. 25A and 25B show example alternative compatible implementations.
DETALED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 shows an example interactive 3D computer graphics system 50. System 50 can be used to play interactive 3D video games with interesting stereo sound. It can also be used for a variety of other applications.
Example Graphics Pipeline FIG. 4 shows a more detailed view of an example 3D graphics processor 154. 3D graphics processor 154 includes, among other things, a command processor 200 and a 3D graphics pipeline 180. Main processor 110 communicates streams of data (e.g., graphics command streams and display lists) to command processor 200. Main processor 110 has a two-level cache 115 to minimize memory latency, and also has a write-gathering buffer 11 for uncached data streams targeted for the graphics and audio processor 114. The write-gathering buffer 111 collects partial cache lines into full cache lines and sends the data out to the graphics and audio processor 114 one cache line at a time for maximum bus usage.
indirect texture processing (500 c)
FIGS. 6 through 17 illustrate example texture processing for performing regular (non-indirect) and indirect texture lookup operations. A more detailed description of the example graphics pipeline circuitry and procedures for performing regular and indirect texture look-up operations is disclosed in commonly assigned co-pending patent application, Ser. No. 60/226,891, entitled �Method And Apparatus For Direct And Indirect Texture Processing In A Graphics System�, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Texture unit 500 outputs filtered texture values to the texture environment unit 600 for texture environment processing (600 a). Texture environment unit 600 blends polygon and texture color/alpha/depth, and can also perform texture fog processing (600 b) to achieve inverse range based fog effects. Texture environment unit 600 can provide multiple stages to perform a variety of other interesting environment-related functions based for example on color/alpha modulation, embossing, detail texturing, texture swapping, clamping, and depth blending. For more details concerning the texture environment unit 600, see concurrently filed commonly assigned application Ser. No. 60/226,888 entitled �Recirculating Shade Tree Blender for a Graphics System�, incorporated by reference herein.
Overview of Example Texture Tiling Procedures The instant invention provides two different tiling methods, both of which preferably use indirect texture tile maps. The first method provides an indirect texture tiling method, and the second method enables unique texture tiles to be created by blending between multiple tiles to achieve, for example, a pseudo-3D texture effect.
FIG. 18a shows an example procedure for the indirect texture tiling method of the instant invention. In accordance with this exemplary first procedure, texture coordinates are generated from surface parameters of a rendered object (block 1400). An tile index map is used to obtain tile select offsets which are used to modify the texture coordinates (block 1402). The modified texture coordinates are then used to select a texture tile from a tile definitions map (block 1404). The texture tile may contain any type of texture that is desired for use in a tiling operation, such as bricks, grass, or any other suitable pattern or portion of a larger pattern. The resulting tile textured image is then displayed (block 1406).
FIG. 18b shows an example procedure for the texture blending or pseudo 3-D texture method of the instant invention. In accordance with this exemplary second procedure, texture coordinates are also generated from surface parameters (block 1410). The texture coordinates are then used to obtain at least one texture select offset which is used to modify the texture coordinates (block 1412). The modified texture coordinates are then used to select multiple texture tiles from a tile definitions map (block 1414). The tiles are then blended together to form a synthesized tile texture (block 1416). The resulting synthesized tile textured image is then displayed (Block 1418).
Both of the above described tiling methods of the present invention will be described separately in greater detail below. Both of the tiling methods described herein are preferably implemented through the use of the indirect texture processing system as described in the above-referenced co-pending patent application. However, any suitable processing system incorporating, for example, recirculating, multiple parallel channel or other processing circuitry can be used in accordance with the instant invention.
Example Indirect Texture Tiling (First Tiling Method) FIG. 19 shows a more detailed exemplary block diagram of the instant indirect texture tiling method as shown in FIG. 18a. In accordance with this method, an indirect tile index map and a tile definitions map are defined (blocks 1500, 1501). The tile definitions map holds the base definitions for a variety of tiles. The indirect tile index map identifies specific locations for specific tiles on the surface of the object being textured. In order to map the tiles on the object in this manner, a pair of indirect texture coordinates (S0,T0) are generated (block 1504). In this example, the indirect texture coordinates are based on a scale for the textured surface not the index map. This advantageously enables the same texture coordinates to be used for the direct texture coordinates and the indirect texture coordinates. Thus, the indirect texture coordinates are appropriately scaled to the index map by, for example, dividing the coordinates by the respective dimensions of the tiles being used (block 1506). The scaled texture coordinates are then used to perform a look-up operation in the texture index map to obtain appropriate tile select offsets (ΔS, ΔT) for the current texture coordinates (block 1508). The tile select offsets are then rescaled to the subject texture scale by, for example, multiplying the offsets by the respective dimensions of the tiles being used (block 1510).
A set of direct texture coordinates (S1,T1) are also defined (block 1512). As explained above, the indirect and direct texture coordinates are actually the same in this example embodiment. A wrapping operation is performed on the direct texture coordinates (block 1514). In this example, the wrapping operation is modulo n wrap, where n is the dimension of the tile being used.
Once the appropriately scaled tile offsets (ΔS, ΔT) and wrapped texture coordinates (S1, T1) are obtained, they are combined (block 1516) to produce a set of modified texture coordinates (S′,T′). The modified texture coordinates (S′,T′) are then used to perform a look-up operation in the tile definitions map (block 1518), in order to obtain the desired texture tile for the current texture coordinates. The selected texture tile is then output for display (block 1520) (or possibly for use in further texture processing operations).
FIG. 20a shows a first example of the indirect tiling method of the instant invention. As shown in FIG. 20a, a texture tile index map 1600 is defined which identifies specific tiles in a tile definitions map 1602 for each tile location on a resulting texture 1604. In this example, a two dimensional (2�2) tile definitions map 1602 is used. Thus, the tile definition map includes four tiles which, in this example, each comprise a different and complimentary portion of a larger intended texture pattern. In this example, the resulting pattern 1604 is 512�512 texels in size. The indirect tile index map 1600 is a 4�4 matrix, wherein each matrix element identifies one of the four tiles in the tile definitions map 1602. Each tile in the tile definitions map is 128�128 texels in size. Thus, by using each of the 16 indexes in the index map 1600 to map a tile, the resulting image 1604 will include 16 tiles (512�512 texels) in the desired configuration as determined by the tile index map. As can be seen in FIG. 20a, the resulting tile pattern 1604 in this example includes a pattern containing four squares made up of 16 texture tiles.
As explained above, certain scaling, wrapping and/or adding operations are performed on the direct and indirect coordinates as indicated by the bump unit (OP) block 1606 in FIG. 20a. In this example, the indirect texture is initially scaled down by dividing the indirect texture coordinates by 128 (the dimension of the tiles) in order to address the 4�4 index matrix 1600 and obtain the offsets for the particular texture coordinates. The offsets are then scaled up by multiplying the offsets by 128 (the dimension of the tiles). The scaled up offsets are then combined with the results of the wrapping operation on the texture coordinates in order to obtain the modified texture coordinates for use in obtaining a texture from the tile definitions map 1602.
FIG. 20b shows a second example of the indirect tiling method of the present invention, wherein like reference numerals correspond to similar parts as described above. In this example, the tile definitions map 1602 is a one dimensional map instead of the two dimensional map as used in the first example of FIG. 20a. As a result, the indirect texture map 1600 only uses single offset values rather than a pair of offsets values as in the first example. Thus, the particular offset value selected can be used to modify either the wrapped S1 or T1 values (S1 in this example), depending on how the tile definitions map is constructed (vertically or horizontally stacked). In this example, the textures tiles are 64�64 tiles in size. Thus, the wrapping and scaling parameters used in the bump unit 1606 (OP) are 64 rather than 128 as in the first example. It is noted that any suitable size texture tiles can be used depending on the particular application in which the invention is used. In addition, any suitably sized indirect texture map and resulting texture can be defined using the instant invention.
FIG. 20c shows a third example of the indirect tiling method of the present invention, which again uses like reference numerals to designate similar parts as described above. This example uses a 2�4 tile definitions map 1602 containing eight 18�18 texel tiles. The indirect tile index map 1600 is similar to the index map of the first example above. In this example, however, only the inner 16�16 texels of the 18�18 texel tiles are used in creating the resulting tile pattern 1604. Thus, as this example demonstrates, any suitable tile size can be used, regardless of the size of the tile definitions.
FIG. 21 shows a logical block diagram of the exemplary indirect tiling method described above with respect to FIGS. 19 and 20a-20 c. As can be seen in FIG. 21, the instant tiling method can take advantage of using the same initial texture coordinates for the direct coordinates and the indirect coordinates (i.e. S1=S0 and T1=T0). However, other arrangements are possible where the coordinates are not the same. For example, indirect texture coordinates may be used which do not need to be scaled in order to properly address the tile index map. However, when the same texture coordinates are used, as in this example, the indirect texture coordinates 1700 (S0,T0) are first scaled, as indicated by scaling blocks 1702 a and 1702 b, in order to conform to the scale of the indirect texture index map 1600. The properly scaled indirect coordinates are then used to perform a look up operation in the tile index map in order to obtain the tile select offsets 1704 (ΔS, ΔT). For tiling the desired texture coordinate scale is the tile size multiplied by the size of the indirect tile index map. The tile size is then divided out for use in accessing the indirect map.
The tile select offsets are scaled up to the original scale to correspond with the scale of the direct texture coordinates, as indicated by multipliers 1706 a and 1706 b. The offsets are then ready to be combined with the regular texture coordinates 1701 (S1, T1), after the direct coordinates are wrapped, as indicated by the modulo n wrapping blocks 1708 a and 1708 b. The wrapped direct coordinates and the scaled offsets are then combined by adders 1710 a and 1710 b, thereby producing the modified texture coordinates 1712 (S′,T′). The modified texture coordinates are then used to perform the regular textures look up in the tile definition map 1602, thereby selecting a tile for output as a texture to the TEV unit. It is noted that the logical block diagram of FIG. 21 shows an embodiment where offsets are provided for both the S1 and T1 coordinates which, in this example, enables a two dimensional tile definitions map to be used. However, other arrangements are possible in accordance with the invention where only a one dimensional tile index map is used, such as in the example of FIG. 20b. Example Pseudo 3D Texture Tiling (Second Tiling Method) FIG. 22 shows a more detailed block diagram of the second indirect tiling method of the instant invention (see FIG. 18b), which is referred to herein as pseudo 3D textures. This second method enables multiple indirectly indexed tiles to be blended together to form synthetic tiles that are mapped onto a surface. In other words, in this method the tiling mapping can be extended to provide a pseudo-3D effect. In this method, all of the tiles are considered to be part of a stack. Rather than selecting a single tile from the tile definitions map, as in the first example above, in this example, one can select multiple tiles (2 adjacent tiles in the example below) and blend the tiles together in order to produce a synthesized texture tile. This technique can be used, for example, to cover a large surface with non-repeating patterns that blend smoothly together. By allowing blending of texture tiles, the programmer is not limited to specific tiles in a tile definitions map when covering a surface. Instead new tiles can be synthesized from existing tiles in order to greatly increase the number of possible texture tiles that can be used to cover a surface, without requiring larger texture definition maps. By using synthesized tiles, the appearance of repeating texture patterns can by avoided, thereby improving the realism of the image. This method can be used, for example, to cover a beach with a tiled texture where the layers vary in appearance from fine sand to small pebbles to large rocks. The blending feature can be used to provides a pseudo-3D appearance for the resulting texture.
As shows in FIG. 22, a indirect tile index map is defined which includes indexes to tiles in the tile definitions stack (block 1800). Indirect texture coordinates are defined (block 1802) to obtain a texture select offset and a blending factor (block 1804). The texture tile definitions are defined in the form of a stack (block 1806). If pseudo-3D effects are desired, the tiles are preferably defined, in this example, such that adjacent tiles will blend well together to provide a layering effect, as will be further understood from the description below. Of course, as explained above, the indirect coordinates may be scaled prior to performing the indirect look up operation, such as when the one desires to have the indirect coordinates equal to the direct coordinates.
Direct coordinates are defined (block 1808), and are combined with the offset to produce a first set of modified texture coordinates (s, t′) (block 1810). The offset is then modified (biased) in a predetermined manner, such as by incrementing the offset by one tile, and a second set of modified texture coordinates (s, t″) (block 1812) is then defined by combining the modified offset with the direct texture coordinates. A first texture is then looked up in the tile definitions stack using the first set of modified texture coordinates (s,t′) to obtain a first texture tile (block 1814). A second texture is then looked up in the tile definitions stack using the second set of modified texture coordinates (s,t′″) to obtain a second texture tile (block 1816). The first and second texture tiles are then blended to create a synthesized texture (block 1818). In this example, the blending factor for use in the blending operation is obtained along with the tile select offset(s) from the tile index map. The synthetic texture is then output for display (Block 1820) (or possibly for use in further texture processing operations).
FIG. 23 shows an example of the pseudo-3D texturing method of the instant invention. In this example, the texture tile index map 1900 includes indexes to the tile stack 1902 as well as a blending factor. Specifically, in this example, the tile index map includes indexes including an integer component and a fraction component. For example, the lower left hand corner element in the index map 1900 is �4.9�. In this example embodiment, the integer component (i.e. �4� ) provides the layer select offset, and the fractional component (i.e. �0.9�) provides the blending factor. Thus, the indirect texture coordinates are used to look up a layer select offset and a blending factor. The offset is then scaled (if necessary for the particular implementation) and combined with the direct texture coordinates (after being wrapped), using bump block 1904, to produce a first set of modified texture coordinates. The first set of modified texture coordinates are then used in a look up operation in the tile definition stack 1902 to obtain a first texture tile. The bump unit also generates a second set of modified coordinates by performing a biasing operation on the tile select offset and combining the biased offset with the wrapped direct texture coordinates. The biasing operation may simply increase the offset by a given amount, such as by one tile, or it may perform any other suitable operation in the offset so that the resulting tile will be different from the resulting tile without the biasing. The second set of modified texture coordinates are then used to look up a second tile from the tile definitions stack 1902. The two selected tiles are then blended together using the blending factor provided by the indirect index tile index map 1900, thereby producing a synthesized texture tile for use in the resulting texture 1906. In this example, the resulting texture 4.9 indicates that the layer definition 4 and layer definition 5 are blended together using a blending factor 0.9, i.e. 4.9=0.1* (layer 4 definition)+0.9* (layer 5 definition). It is noted that in this example, a only one offset is provided. Thus, in this example, the tile definitions map is treated as a one dimensional stack and the offset is used to modify the S1 or T1 component of the direct texture coordinates. Other arrangements are possible where the index map provides a pair of offsets, as well as a blending factor. In other embodiments, the blending factor may be a constant or otherwise defined in a manner other than by the tile index map 1900. However, by enabling the blending factor to be programmed into the tile index map, different blending factors can be conveniently defined to create large variety of synthetic tiles. It is also noted that in this example, the bias factor for the offset is one tile. Thus, once the primary tile is defined, the secondary tile is defined as the next tile in the stack. Other arrangements are possible where the bias causes the second tile to have a different relationship to the first tile.
FIG. 24 shows and exemplary logical block diagram of this second tiling method described above in connection with FIGS. 22 and 23. As shown in FIG. 24, the indirect coordinates (S0, T0) are determined and then appropriately scaled, as indicated by scaling blocks 1910 a and 1910 b. The scaling is done for the same reasons explained above in connection with the first method of the invention. This example also takes advantage of using the same values for the direct and indirect texture coordinates However, as explained above, other arrangements are possible and the scaling operations can be adjusted or eliminated depending on the particular implementation. In this example, the scaled indirect coordinates 1908 (S0,T0) are used to perform a look up operation in the indirect texture index map 1900 in order to obtain an integer 1918 a representing a tile select offset and a fraction (1918 b) representing a blending factor. The integer (offset) is then rescaled, as indicated by multiplier 1922, and sent to adder 1916 a for use as a modifier for the direct texture coordinates. The direct texture coordinates 1912 (S1,T1) are wrapped, as indicated by modulo n wrap blocks 1914 a and 1914 b. The offset is then combined with the t component of the wrapped coordinates to produce a first set of modified texture coordinates (s,t′), which are then used to perform a look up in the tile definitions stack 1902 to obtain a first texture tile (Tex1).
The tile select offset provided by the integer 1918 a is also used to obtain a second set of modified texture coordinates. This is done by biasing the offset, as indicated by block 1926. In this example, the biasing involves adding 1 to the offset prior to resealing the offset at multiplier 1922 b . The biased offset is then sent to adder 1916 b. The biased offset is combined with the wrapped t component of the direct texture coordinates by adder 1916 b in order to produce a second set of modified texture coordinates (s, t″). The second set of modified texture coordinates are then used to perform a second look up in the tile definitions map 1902 in order to obtain a second texture tile (Tex2).
The first texture tile (tex1) and the second texture tile (text2) are then sent to the blending block 1920. The fraction component (1918 b) obtained from the indirect texture index map 1900 is sent through multiplexers 1924 a and 1924 b for delivery to the blending block 1920. Thus, the blender then has the two texture tiles and the appropriate blending factor. A blending operation is then performed to combine the two texture tiles based on the blending factor to produce a synthesized tile for output to the display (or possibly for use in a further texture processing operation).
Example API Indirect Texture Tiling Function Commands As shown in FIGS. 7-9, one or more graphics API functions are preferably used to set up and initiate indirect texture look up operations and indirect texture processing. Example API functions for setting up indirect texture operations and parameters for performing Indirect texture tiling and pseudo-3D texture tiling, as described above, may be defined as follows:
GXSetTevIndTile This function may be used to implemented tiled texturing using indirect textures. Note that the regular texture map only specifies tile definitions. The actual number of texels to be applied to the polygon is a function of the base tile size and the size of the indirect map. In order to set the proper texture coordinate scale, one must call GXSetTexCoordScaleManually. One can also use GXSetIndTexScale in order to use the same texcoord for the indirect stage as the regular TEV stage.
Example Arguments tev_stage
�bump� alpha, if any (for pseudo-3D textures).
Example Usage void GXSetTevIndTile(
The above function can be used to specify the indirect texture tiling method or the pseudo-3D texture tiling method described above. It is noted that one can specify tile size and spacing separately. An exemplary reason for using spacing which is larger than the tile size is to allow borders for mipmapping purposes. depending upon the height of the mipmap stack, texels outside of the tile area may be included in the filtering calculations for mipmapping. This function will set up the matrix and scale value appropriately based upon the given inputs; one need only specify which matrix slot to use. The biasSel and alphaSel parameters are used only for pseudo-3D lookups. They are set to GX_ITB_NONE and GX_ITBA_OFF (respectively) for normal 2D tiling. It is noted that texture tiling can take advantage of using the same texture coordinates for the indirect map and the regular (direct) map. However, the desired scale values for the regular texture coordinates are not directly related to the size of the regular map which contains the tile definitions. Normally, the scale size for a texture coordinate will be set to the size of the map being looked up, with preference to the regular map size if a texture coordinate is being shared. Since with texture tiling, as different scale is needed, the following functions can be use:
GXSetTexCoordScaleManually Arguments GXTexCoordID
//Name of the texcoord being affected
//GX_True = manual scaling;
//GX_False = automatic scaling
//Manual scale value for S dimension
//Manual scale value for T dimension.
Once GXSetTexCoordScaleManually has been called with enable set to GX_True, the given texture coordinate scale values are fixed until the function is called again. If the function is called with enable set to GX_False, then automatic texture coordinate scaling takes over once again for that texcoord. For texture tiling, the desired texture coordinate scale is the tile size times the size of the indirect map. One then uses GXSetIndTexCoordScale to divide out the tile size for use in accessing the indirect map.
In order to support pseudo-3D texture lookup, one must, in this example, call GXSetTevIndTile for two adjacent TEV stages. The first stage resembles a normal 2D tiling specification. For the second stage, one specifies a bias select and alpha select. The bias is used to select the tile stacking direction. One uses GX_ITB_S when the next tile is offset in the S dimension, and GX_ITB_T when the next tile is offset in the T dimension. One then chooses a bump alpha in order to blend between the tile from the first lookup and the tile from the second lookup. It is noted that in this example, one cannot use the 8-bit format for pseudo-3D textures. Instead, one can use the 3, 4 and 5-bit formats. These formats use a bias value of +1 instead of −128. The +1 bias is used to get the �next� tile in the second stage.
FIG. 25A illustrates an example overall emulation process using a host platform 1201, an emulator component 1303, and a game software executable binary image provided on a storage medium 62. Host 1201 may be a general or special purpose digital computing device such as, for example, a personal computer, a video game console, or any other platform with sufficient computing power. Emulator 1303 may be software and/or hardware that runs on host platform 1201, and provides a real-time conversion of commands, data and other information from storage medium 62 into a form that can be processed by host 1201. For example, emulator 1303 fetches �source� binary-image program instructions intended for execution by system 50 from storage medium 62 and converts these program instructions to a target format that can be executed or otherwise processed by host 1201.
In the case where particular graphics support hardware within an emulator does not include the example indirect texture referencing features and functions illustrated by FIGS. 7 through 24, the emulator designer has a choice of either:
translating the indirect-texture referencing commands into other graphics API commands the graphics support hardware understands, or
implementing indirect-texture referencing in software with a potential corresponding decrease in performance depending upon the speed of the processor, or
�stubbing� (i.e., ignoring) the indirect-texture referencing commands to provide a rendered image that does not include effects utilizing indirect-texture referencing.
While the logical diagrams of FIGS. 21 and 24 can be implemented entirely in software, entirely in hardware or by a combination of hardware and software, the preferred embodiment performs most of the calculations in hardware (using bump unit 500 b) to obtain increased speed performance and other advantages. Nevertheless, in other implementations (e.g. where a very fast processor is available), some of all of the processing described herein may be implemented in software to provide similar or identical imaging results.
FIG. 25B illustrates an emulation host system 1201 suitable for use with emulator 1303. System 1201 includes a processing unit 1203 and a system memory 1205. A system bus 1207 couples various system components including system memory 1205 to processing unit 1203. System bus 1207 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. System memory 1207 includes read only memory (ROM) 1252 and random access memory (RAM) 1254. A basic input/output system (BIOS) 1256, containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within personal computer system 1201, such as during start-up, is stored in the ROM 1252. System 1201 further includes various drives and associated computer-readable media. A hard disk drive 1209 reads from and writes to a (typically fixed) magnetic hard disk 1211. An additional (possible optional) magnetic disk drive 1213 reads from and writes to a removable �floppy� or other magnetic disk 1215. An optical disk drive 1217 reads from and, in some configurations, writes to a removable optical disk 1219 such as a CD ROM or other optical media. Hard disk drive 1209 and optical disk drive 1217 are connected to system bus 1207 by a hard disk drive interface 1221 and an optical drive interface 1225, respectively. The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, game programs and other data for personal computer system 1201. In other configurations, other types of computer-readable media that can store data that is accessible by a computer (e.g., magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks, Bernoulli cartridges, random access memories (RAMs), read only memories (ROMs) and the like) may also be used.
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