Patent ID: 7042452

Claim:
A graphics system comprising: a rasterization pipeline; a vertex processor configured to receive vertices of a triangle T, to compute a first length for each edge of the triangle T, to compute a perimeter of the triangle T, to compute a geometric area of the triangle T, to add the geometric area and a scalar multiple of the perimeter to determine a coverage estimate for the triangle T, to invoke execution of a dicing process if one or more edges of the triangle T have first length greater than a maximum length, to invoke execution of a central subdivision process if the coverage estimate is greater than a maximum coverage and all edges have first length less than or equal to the maximum length, to forward a set of one or more single-layer triangles based on the triangle T to the rasterization pipeline if the triangle T has coverage estimate less than or equal to the maximum coverage and all edges have first length less than or equal to the maximum length.