Patent ID: 8872839

Claim:
At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, the computer system also including a graphics processing unit (GPU), a method for atlasing graphics data of an application for rendering with the GPU, the method comprising: an act of allocating a texture atlas configured to store a plurality of textural elements of arbitrary size for use in rendering one or more graphical elements; an act of providing the GPU access to the texture atlas; subsequent to providing the GPU access to the texture atlas and during execution of an application, an act of determining that a particular graphical element of the application is to be rendered by the GPU, and in response: an act of allocating a block of space within the texture atlas for storing a particular textural element, the particular textural element usable by the GPU when rendering the particular graphical element for the application; and an act of storing the particular textural element in the allocated block of space within the texture atlas, such that the GPU has access to the particular textural element when rendering the particular graphical element for the application; and an act of creating a new texture atlas in response to determining that the texture atlas is being underutilized.