Patent ID: 6954205

Claim:
A system for communicating between a 3D graphics API and surface memory space having a privatized format and a public format associated therewith in a 3D graphics system, comprising: means for requesting via the 3D graphics API a first operation upon 3D graphics data stored in at least one display memory surface of the surface memory space to be rendered; means for determining whether a second operation has been requested; means for transforming said 3D graphics data from data formatted according to said privatized format to data formatted according to said public format and copying the publicly formatted data into host system memory pursuant to said first operation if said second operation has been requested; and means for requesting a third operation upon said 3D graphics data to be rendered, wherein publicly formatted data is copied into host system memory pursuant to said third operation only if said second operation has been requested; whereby if said first and third operations are requested, and said second operation has also been requested in connection with both said first and third operations, only one copy of publicly formatted data is copied into host system memory pursuant to said first and third operations.