Patent ID: 8466919

Claim:
A method for rendering an image, wherein an image rendering process is represented by an initial directed acyclic graph (DAG) comprising a plurality of input parameters, a plurality of intermediate operations and at least one output value, the initial DAG further comprising a plurality of paths between the input parameters and the at least one output value and a plurality of nodes on the paths corresponding to the intermediate operations, wherein an intermediate output value is determined at each node in the plurality of nodes by performing the corresponding intermediate operation, the method comprising: receiving, at one or more computer systems, information modifying at least one input parameter in the plurality of input parameters; identifying, with one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, at least one intermediate output value at least one node in the plurality of nodes that is affected by the modified at least one input parameter in the plurality of input parameters; generating, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, a simplified DAG comprising the intermediate operations corresponding to the identified at least one intermediate output value at the at least one node in the plurality of nodes of the initial DAG, wherein each intermediate output value at a node in the simplified DAG that is not identified as being affected by the selected modified at least one input parameter in the plurality of input parameters in the initial DAG is unchanged in the simplified DAG; evaluating, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the simplified DAG by performing the intermediate operations of the simplified DAG using the modified at least one input parameter in the plurality of input parameters, wherein the evaluated simplified DAG produces an updated value for at least the at least one output value; and rendering, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the image using the updated value of the at least one output value.