Patent ID: 6987516

Claim:
An apparatus for rendering animated image data in real time, comprising: texture storage means; data storage means configured to store data, including scene data, that defines a plurality of sequentially displayable scenes, each of which is rendered as an image sequence in real time, wherein data for each of said scenes includes a texture for the respective scene, that requires transfer to said texture storage means in advance of said scene being rendered; and central processing means and graphical processing means configured to perform operations to render said scenes, without a pause between scenes, said operations being under control of said central processing means, which is configurable to execute instructions for performing the steps of: (a) rendering the next frame of the current scene; (b) estimating a bandwidth availability for texture transfer that is unlikely to interfere with the real-time rendering of the current scene; (c) identifying the amount of data in a texture required for rendering a next scene; (d) splitting said required texture into texture portions that satisfy said bandwidth availability; and (e) transferring one of said texture portions from said data storage means to said texture storage means using said available bandwidth while rendering, in real-time, the current scene.